News the Stars Bring Today

Whoa! Sit down for this one… The Obama administration has filed a brief disputing the relevance or necessity of our closely guarded “Miranda Rights.” According to Mark Sherman AP, the Solicitor General Elena Kagan has requested that a murder confession obtained without providing these rights to Jose Monteja, an indigent man, should not be grounds for dismissing the case.

The Supreme Court decision in the 1986 Michigan vs Jackson case resulted in what is taken as ordinary procedure by every law enforcement agency in the country. The opinion was written by Justice John Paul Stevens who is still on the Supreme Court, 23 years later. It is considered that “the protection offered by the court in Stevens’ 1986 opinion is especially important for vulnerable defendants, including the mentally and developmentally disabled, addicts, juveniles and the poor.” This would, some believe, be particularly applicable to the Afro-American community, so, it is surprising to some that Obama would move to disenfranchise them. Basically, the decision states that information obtained without reading the suspect’s Rights and allowing the suspect to be interrogated without counsel present subjects many to an unfair advantage.

“The brief, signed by Solicitor General Elena Kagan, said the 1986 decision “serves no real purpose” and offers only “meager benefits.” It might be noted that although Ms Kagan was Dean of Harvard Law School and an armchair lawyer, without any courtroom experience and has never argued a case, even before the Supreme Court. without any courtroom experience, it would seem that Ms. Kagan may lack some considerable understanding of the real world and the effect of homelessness, mental disability, poverty and race in the conduction of an interrogation by sophisticated police officers. another interesting point is that Ms. Kagan was appointed Dean of Harvard Law School by Larry Summers, who is now Obama’s chief Economic adviser. And, I might add, a disastrous one for the nation.