Still Creeping Closer

By BJ

Our co-blogger Libby likes to remind us that the police state never comes all at once, but creeps upon us in small increments. While Obama has made some moves to reverse some of the more egregious moves of the Bush administration in that direction, the creep continues on other levels.

In opinions so spare that the Supreme Court did not labor long to produce them, the Justices on Monday unanimously expanded the control that police can exercise at the scene of roadside traffic stops, and, again without dissent, pushed up the chain-of-command in prosecutors’ offices total immunity to liability for decisions made in preparing criminal cases for trial. The first ruling was an enlargement of “stop and frisk” authority, the second was a reinterpretation of when prosecutors’ supervisors do administrative tasks.

The second ruling is of particular note given it involves a prosecutor's office failing to provide information to the defense as required, leading to 24 years in jail for the defendant. In their expansion of immunity to liability, the Supreme Court has now basically denied said individual the right to sue for damages.

Read the whole thing, and see where the creep is inching its way along.