Florida "DUI Plates" Would Eliminate Probable Cause
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A local hack politician in Florida wants to bring back the Scarlet Letter:
Punishing drinking and driving is one thing. Shaming and harassing people who are driving safely and sober is something quite different.
The concept of "DUI plates" might -- might -- serve a sufficient deterrent effect to be a legitimate program. But past criminal conduct is (generally) not even admissible in court under the rules of evidence, so why should it be grounds to scuttle the Fourth Amendment?
A Florida state senator wants to require convicted drunken drivers to have license plates that start with "DUI."Heck, what's a pesky little constitutional concept like "probable cause" when there are lives at stake (or at least grandstanding press conferences to be held)?
The proposed law would also require bright pink license plates on vehicles driven by people with restricted driving privileges due to convictions for driving under the influence.
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The bill also says police "may stop any vehicle that bears a DUI plate without probable cause to check the driver."
Punishing drinking and driving is one thing. Shaming and harassing people who are driving safely and sober is something quite different.
The concept of "DUI plates" might -- might -- serve a sufficient deterrent effect to be a legitimate program. But past criminal conduct is (generally) not even admissible in court under the rules of evidence, so why should it be grounds to scuttle the Fourth Amendment?
All Related Posts (on one page) | Some Related Posts:
- A Sad Addition to the Dictionary
- Court Finds Unlimited Police Power to Plant GPS on Vehicles
- A Man's Home is His Castle......
- New VAWA "Annoying" Clause is Indeed Annoying -- But Not to Blogs
- Florida "DUI Plates" Would Eliminate Probable Cause
- Well It Is a "White Powdery Substance"...
- Supreme Court Upholds "Quick" Dog Sniff of Vehicle
- Maryland's Idiot Judges: Police Dogs "Part of the Family"
- Hair-Shaving and the Fourth Amendment
Posted by Kip on
16 November 2005
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