Pubdate: Wed, 25 Jul 2001
Source: Daily Iowan, The (IA Edu)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Iowan
Contact:  http://www.dailyiowan.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/937
Author: Bruce Nestor

LETTER TO THE EDITOR - BRUCE NESTOR

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and 
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, 
and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or 
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the 
persons or things to be seized." -- Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States

Johnson County recently removed a monument containing a plaque with the Ten 
Commandments from the lawn of the Johnson County Courthouse. Perhaps in its 
place should go a tombstone that represents the demise of the Fourth Amendment.

Recent newspaper coverage has focused on the controversial search conducted 
by Iowa City police, later endorsed by Police Chief R.J. Winkelhake, where 
consent to search a private home was allegedly obtained from an 11-year-old 
boy. This incident is only one among many which illustrates the extent to 
which the Fourth Amendment has been eroded by aggressive law-enforcement 
practices and weak judicial oversight.

As a criminal defense attorney in private practice, I see only a small 
slice of the search-and-seizure cases that occur each year in Iowa City, 
but the cases I see show the sorry state of the Fourth Amendment in our 
city. For example:

* Based solely on an anonymous tip, two officers in black uniforms knock on 
an apartment door at 10:30 at night. A young woman, in pajamas, answers the 
door. The police gain entry by claiming to need help with an "incident in 
the neighborhood" and then intimidate her into a consent to search. Less 
than one-sixteenth of an ounce of marijuana is found, and another person is 
handcuffed, fingerprinted, disrobed, dressed in an orange suit, jailed, and 
appears in court.

* Investigating an anonymous tip, police officers seize curbside garbage 
and find paperwork belonging to the residents and "stems that appear to be 
from the marijuana plant." Based on this information, a judge grants a 
search warrant. Despite a federal court opinion from Ohio finding that 
issuing such a warrant is tantamount "to subjecting to a full and probing 
search the home of a cocktail party host, whose guests, perhaps unbeknownst 
to him, indulge in illicit substances and discard the remainder," the 
search warrant is upheld by a reviewing judge.

* Police officers observe a young man discard a cigarette butt on the 
Pedestrian Mall and issue him a littering citation. Despite a ruling from 
the U.S. Supreme Court prohibiting a search in such circumstances, the 
officers proceed to conduct a public and humiliating search of the man's 
person and backpack. No contraband is found. Later, at a public forum 
sponsored by the Iowa City Police Citizens Review Board (the type of forum 
the Board can no longer hold), a captain from the Iowa City police publicly 
defends the search.

These incidents are not isolated anecdotes, occurring only in Iowa City. 
They are typical of incidents across the nation, whereby judicial rulings 
erode protections of the Fourth Amendment. Coupled with police practices 
that push the envelope of what is constitutionally permissible we see that 
citizens are not "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, 
against unreasonable searches and seizures."

Race, class, and age play a key role in public support for such police 
practices and judicial rulings. People of color, lower-income people, and 
the nation's young people are disproportionately the victims of such 
constitutional violations -- whether it is Rudy Giuliani's New York police 
frisking young men of color at random, New Jersey state troopers stopping 
cars driven by black and brown people, or here in Iowa City with the police 
focusing resources on arresting students.

In Iowa City, it is clear that the leadership of the police department, the 
current City Council, and the judiciary will not stop the erosion of our 
constitutional liberties. I therefore urge the voters of Iowa City to 
strongly support the proposed reforms to the Home Rule Charter, which will 
allow the citizens to have a voice in the selection of the police chief, 
establish stronger civilian review of the police force, and curb the most 
egregious current police practices. If the charter reforms pass, we could 
erect a monument on the courthouse lawn celebrating the renewal of the 
Fourth Amendment.

Bruce D. Nestor is an attorney in Iowa City and is the president of the 
National Lawyers Guild, an organization founded in 1937 on the principle 
that "human rights should be held more sacred than property interests."

Bruce Nestor
Iowa City resident
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MAP posted-by: Beth