A Stitch in Haste

Apparently we now need "reader of journalists" privilege:

Phoenix New Times owners Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin were arrested Thursday night by Maricopa County sheriff's deputies on charges of revealing grand jury information, a misdemeanor.

The charges stem from a story published under their byline in the Thursday edition of New Times, in which they describe a subpoena the paper reportedly received from a grand jury convened by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
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The scope of the subpoena is unusually broad: It not only demands information from the reporters but also information about all the online readers of the publication since Jan. 1, 2004, including their Internet domain names and browsers and what other Web sites they visited before reading New Times.

Someone should remind Sheriff Joe Arpaio (whose prison management tactics are so controversial as to have attracted the attention of Amnesty International) that illegally publishing information (assuming such a thing is even possible under the First Amendment) is not the same as reading allegedly illegally published information (which is unarguably protected by the First Amendment).

Fortunately, no one needed to remind the district attorney, who promptly dismissed all charges against the New Times publishers, thereby quashing his own subpoena.

It's quite simple really: The subpoena power is not an unchecked license to engage in fishing expeditions or to ride roughshod over the Fourth Amendment (or, worse, to retaliate against critics of an egomaniacal moral defective — remember: sheriffs are politicians).

It is not illegal, without more, to visit a newspaper's website. There is therefore no basis, no grounds whatsoever, to subpoena that information. Aggregate statistics, perhaps, but not detailed personal information that in no way facilitates any legitimate criminal investigation.

Subpoenas are tools, dangerous tools, given to prosecutors — in the same way, for the same reasons and with the same limitations — that firearms are given to police officers. And, like cops with guns, improper use of subpoenas must be swiftly dealt with.

As I was scanning my aggregator, this picture in a feed caught my eye:



I had no idea what the news story was before I reflexively thought: What kind of ego-deficient loser needs to strut around with four stars on his collar? Police departments stop using rank equivalents at "captain." Does his department have Brigadier, Major and Lieutenant Generals too, I wondered?

Then I read the accompanying story and suddenly I was no longer surprised:

Orange County's [California] sheriff has been charged with accepting bribes in exchange for political favors and pressing a witness to lie as authorities investigated whether he used his office to enrich himself.

The case against Michael S. Carona purportedly involves more than $350,000 in cash and gifts, as well as a "get out of jail free card" for a wealthy appointee whose son was arrested twice, according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday. Also named in the indictment were Carona's wife and a woman identified as his longtime mistress.
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Carona is accused of accepting gifts from unnamed Orange County businessmen, including ringside tickets to an Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad boxing match in Las Vegas; Mont Blanc pens; and luxury box seats to see the Angels in the World Series playoffs. His wife allegedly accepted designer suits and a Cartier watch valued at about $15,000. Carona also appointed his wife to the Orange County Fair board of directors.
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CNN's Larry King called him "America's Sheriff," a nickname that still appears on Carona's official biography.

It's quite simple really: Sheriffs should not be celebrities. Those who seek out the spotlight cannot possibly warrant the appellation "public servant" and are no less morally defective than any power-hungry politician.