Constitutional Law, Guns / Firearms, Privacy, Technology

3 Notable Legal Stories From The Short Week

Looking back at three interesting legal stories from the short holiday week.

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3. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Third Amendment case?

The ultimate snipe hunt to give a 1L is to ask them to go find all the good Third Amendment cases. They scramble, you mock them, all is right with the world. But what do you know, there is an ongoing Third Amendment case out there right now:

Henderson [Nevada] police arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors, the family claims in court.

Anthony Mitchell and his parents Michael and Linda Mitchell sued the City of Henderson, its Police Chief Jutta Chambers, Officers Garret Poiner, Ronald Feola, Ramona Walls, Angela Walker, and Christopher Worley, and City of North Las Vegas and its Police Chief Joseph Chronister, in Federal Court….

The complaint continues: “Defendant Officer David Cawthorn outlined the defendants’ plan in his official report: ‘It was determined to move to 367 Evening Side and attempt to contact Mitchell. If Mitchell answered the door he would be asked to leave. If he refused to leave he would be arrested for Obstructing a Police Officer. If Mitchell refused to answer the door, force entry would be made and Mitchell would be arrested.'”

That sounds lame. It got worse when the police started shooting this guy with pepperballs because he wouldn’t gratuitously let them commandeer his house. They even shot his dog:

He says they also hurt his pet dog for no reason whatsoever: “Plaintiff Anthony Mitchell’s pet, a female dog named ‘Sam,’ was cowering in the corner when officers smashed through the front door. Although the terrified animal posed no threat to officers, they gratuitously shot it with one or more pepperball rounds. The panicked animal howled in fear and pain and fled from the residence. Sam was subsequently left trapped outside in a fenced alcove without access to water, food, or shelter from the sun for much of the day, while temperatures outside soared to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.”

What’s with cops and dogs these days? We’re just a few days removed from cops offing a dog in California. I get that dogs can be scary animals, but both of these incidents are overkill.

Meanwhile, the Henderson police are going to inevitably argue that they aren’t “soldiers” within the meaning of the Third Amendment. This is an interesting argument because cops are definitely not “soldiers,” but the impetus behind the Third Amendment — the repudiation of the pre-Revolutionary Quartering Acts — provides a close corollary, because British troops in the colonies at the time functioned a lot like a police force.

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But in the post-Fourth of July fervor, what better case to monitor than one ripped from the 1770s?

Prosecution, defense make opening arguments in Zimmerman trial [MSNBC]
Don West’s Instagram Faux Pas [The Root]
CNN airs George Zimmerman’s Social Security number and address during live coverage of Trayvon Martin murder trial [New York Daily News]
Hilarious Skype Bombing Brings Halt To Witness Testimony In George Zimmerman Trial [The Smoking Gun]
Person of Interest wants to remind you they predicted this NSA sh-t [io9]
FISA Court Has Rejected .03 Percent Of All Government Surveillance Requests [Mother Jones]
Ex-FISA Court Judge Reflects: After 9/11, ‘Bloodcurdling’ Briefings [NPR]
FISA Court Judges Aren’t Happy That The Public Is Upset Secret Court Issuing Secret Rulings Allowing NSA To Spy On Them [TechDirt]
FISA Bill Introduced To Declassify Court Opinions Used To Justify Surveillance [Huffington Post]
A Real Live Third Amendment Case [The Volokh Conspiracy]

Earlier: Five Stories That Made This an Exhausting Week of Legal News
Non-Sequiturs: 07.03.13

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