SCotUS Weakens 4th, 5th Amendments

Now, if the cops stop you on the street and ask you your name, you have to tell them.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that people do not have a constitutional right to refuse to tell police their names.

The 5-4 decision frees the government to arrest and punish people who won't cooperate by revealing their identity.

The decision, reached by a divided court, was a defeat for privacy rights advocates who argued that the government could use this power to force people who have done nothing wrong to submit to fingerprinting or divulge more personal information.

The decision was 5-4.  In dissent were Stevens, Souter, Bader-Ginsberg, and Breyer.  Classic ideological divide.

Perhaps the number 1 reason a second Bush term should scare you:  he'd stack the courts even futher in his favor.