- Police officers don't have to give a reason at the time
they arrest someone, the U.S. Supreme Court said in a ruling that shields
officers from false-arrest lawsuits.
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- The justices, voting 8-0, threw out a suit against
Washington
state police officers who stopped a motorist and then told him he was being
arrested for tape-recording their conversation. Although the recording
was legal, the high court said the arrest was valid because the man could
have been arrested instead for impersonating a police officer.
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- In an opinion for the court, Justice Antonin Scalia said
the officers didn't have to provide a reason for arresting the man at all,
as long as they had probable cause to do so.
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- "While it is assuredly good police practice to
inform
a person of the reason for his arrest at the time he is taken into custody,
we have never held that to be constitutionally required," Scalia
wrote.
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- The decision was one of five issued by the court today
in Washington. In a second unanimous ruling, the court said the Florida
Supreme Court was wrong to set aside a death penalty verdict on the grounds
that the defense lawyer didn't obtain explicit client authorization to
concede guilt and focus on the penalty phase of the trial.
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- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the high court,
said that factor didn't automatically render the lawyer's performance
deficient
and warrant a new trial in the murder case.
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- Rehnquist Plans
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- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who announced Oct.
25 that he is being treated for thyroid cancer, didn't take part in either
unanimous ruling.
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- Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Rehnquist, 80, will
abstain from some of the cases argued during the two-week period that
started
Nov. 1. The chief justice, however, will take part in all cases argued
during the subsequent two-week December argument session that began Nov.
29, she said.
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- "The chief justice has decided he will not
participate
in November cases unless the conference vote without him is 4-4,"
Arberg said. "He is going to participate in the December
cases."
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- The news, coupled with the announcement last week that
Rehnquist plans to administer the oath of office to President George W.
Bush at the Jan. 20 inauguration, suggests the chief justice isn't planning
to retire any time soon. Medical experts say Rehnquist, who has undergone
a tracheotomy, chemotherapy and radiation, may have an especially
aggressive
form of thyroid cancer.
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- Superfund Ruling
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- In other cases, the court:
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- -- Limited the power of companies to sue other businesses
and the federal government for the cost of cleaning up hazardous wastes.
The justices ruled 7-2 that a disputed section of the Superfund law doesn't
authorize companies to sue for cleanup costs unless they are facing a
federal
enforcement action. The decision left open the possibility that type of
suit could be filed under a different section of the law.
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- -- Shielded a police officer in Washington state from
an excessive-force lawsuit filed by a suspect who was shot in the back
by the officer while trying to flee in a vehicle.
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- In the false-arrest ruling, the justices reversed a
decision
by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals
court had said an arrest on an invalid charge can't be upheld unless police
could have filed a different charge over a "closely related
offense."
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- Scalia said the 9th Circuit reasoning would have
"perverse
consequences," giving officers an incentive not to give any reason
for an arrest.
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- Ruling Reversed
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- The troopers pulled Jerome Anthony Alford over in 1997
after seeing him stop behind a disabled vehicle on a highway. The occupants
of the disabled car told police they thought Alford was a police officer
because his car had headlights that alternated flashing on and off.
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- The troopers said that, when they stopped Alford, they
saw that he had a police scanner and handcuffs. A supervisor arrived and
noticed that Alford had a tape-recorder that was recording his conversation
with the officers.
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- The officers arrested Alford on a charge of violating
Washington's Privacy Act, which makes it unlawful to record a private
conversation
without all parties' consent. Alford told the officers he had a copy of
a court ruling that said the state privacy law didn't protect police
officers
on the job.
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- The charge later was dismissed, and Alford sued the two
officers, claiming false arrest and a civil rights violation.
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- The case is Devenpeck v. Alford, 03-710.
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