The economy of change

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

"DOMA is dead!" The chant came from thousands of people who stood a vigil at the SCOTUS at the time the news came out. As we all know, the Defense of Marriage Act was shot down citing infringement with the 5th Amendment which guarantees equality in front of the law. The moral imperative to finally do so aside, the formal argument was that by banning federal recognition to those same-sex marriages that had been previously signed in the 16 states (plus DC) where they're legal, the DOMA was discriminating against US citizens based on their sexual orientation.

And that was just Act 1. It was shortly followed by a decision on Prop 8, the SCOTUS returning the case for review at a lower authority. That decision is also viewed as a victory for the LGBT movement because of the reasoning that was cited: defending legislative bills could only be done by the authorities (i.e. governor or chief prosecutor), not by private organizations. Since in 2009 the then California governor Schwarzenegger and the chief prosecutor Jerry Brown declined to defend the ban on same-sex marriage, the issue was taken up by various conservative organizations. They lost the case at the lower courts, where the ban was shot down.

( What all this means )

"The Right to Remain Silent Requires You To Speak"

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

That's the headline I'd have chosen for this month's big criminal law case out of the Supreme Court, Salinas v. Texas. The result is a bit fragmented, with the "majority" opinion being just 3 justices, but the long and short of it is that, in a non-custodial interview with the police, if you want to invoke your right to remain silent, you have to tell the police that you're doing so. Otherwise, they can describe your physical, non-verbal reactions to questions -- like, as was the case in Salinas, looking nervous and being silent after being asked whether shells found at the scene of a murder would match your gun. This is not, according to the Justices, a violation of the privilege against self-incrimination guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.

( Now, many contrast this with Miranda v. Arizona... )

This is why the best possible advice you can get on police interrogations is this: never, ever talk to the police.