Obama DOJ Seeks to Restrict Defendant's Right to Lawyer During Questioning

The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to overrule Michigan v. Jackson, the 1986 Supreme Court decision that held that if police may not interrogate a defendant after the right to counsel has attached, if the defendant has a lawyer or has requested a lawyer.

[T]he 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 isn't the first time the Justice Department, under President Obama, has sought to limit defendants' rights.

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Comment: I'm totally not on board with this. I don't understand the motivation behind this, and I also don't understand how this is a priority with an economy on life-support, two wars, criminality by previous administration and repairing the civil liberties that have been trampled upon by the imperial presidency.

This is legitimate criticism of the Obama administration eminating from Left. This isn't the usual standard fare from the right, like say for instance, Obama is a socialist (one day), he's a fascist (the next day), he wasn't born here, he's raising our taxes (although he's lowering them), etcetera, etcetera.

But that aside, limiting defendants' rights, what possible good could come up from this? I'd better hear a very compelling explanation as to why this 1) needs to be done now, and 2) is not a continuation of the disrespect for our civil rights that the previous administration had.

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Consistent with a strategy of relentless power grab moves at every opportunity.

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"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." - Margaret Thatcher

This is very scary I would definitely like some more info. Has anyone been keeping up with the New Haven firefighters discrimination suit now before the Supreme Court?

Wanna--bet the ACLU (American civil liberty union) doesn't say one little "peep" about this. They're more interested in the prosecution of a past administration--that waterboarded 3 terrorists in their attempt to save Americans from another 9/11.

So now when arrested--the new statement will be: You do not have the right to an attorney--you must talk to us first, then we'll decide if you can have an attorney or not:

When these decisions come down, many law abiding citizens do not agree with them. I remember when Miranda was young. No one really got it at the time.

Those same people are finally getting itl.


Not only are they getting it, they are also saying things like 'I feel like I live in Nazi Germany.'

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Except, of course, that the ACLU doesn't do prosecutions; the gov't does.Sigh. No matter what happens in this case, defendants will still have the right to an attorney, arrestees don't have to talk to anyone, including police officers, if they don't wan't to, and police do not decide if arrestees get an attorney or not.

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All things serve The Beam

the aclu will most certainly take this up, its right in their wheelhouse.

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."

Give it time, the ACLU will be all over this.

Oh, and we don't know how many people were waterboarded, and we certainly don't know if it saved lives - in fact, evidence exists to the contrary such as misninformation about Iraq and WMDs, and/or ties with al Queda.

But, don't let the facts disabuse you of a good fantasy.

Edit: Which your second point has zilch to do with thread topic.

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I am curious as to why when I google say- Obama and Michigan vs Jackson, or Holder and Michigan vs Jackson or Obama administration seeks to change police questioning law, there is not one hit from any msm outlet here.....I don't get it.

And where for instance is the naacp on this? If as we have been told, the system is heavily skewed against blacks, well, I would expect that they would be very vocal as to any degradation of suspect rights etc. I googled 'naacp- michigan vs. jackson' and all I got was references from their site as to seating michigan delegates last year.

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"The captain has turned off the `No Dubbing' sign. You are free to speak any language you choose."