The voters are paying attention.
Wonder how the Republicans can possibly spin this decision in their favor.
Sotomayors blistering SCOTUS dissent warns America is turning into a prison state
Although many Americans have been stopped for speeding or jaywalking, few may realize how degrading a stop can be when the officer is looking for more, wrote Sotomayor. This Court has allowed an officer to stop you for whatever reason he wants so long as he can point to a pretextual justification after the fact.
By legitimizing the conduct that produces this double consciousness, this case tells everyone, white and black, guilty and innocent, that an officer can verify your legal status at any time, Sotomayor wrote. It says that your body is subject to invasion while courts excuse the violation of your rights. It implies that you are not a citizen of a democracy but the subject of a carceral state, just waiting to be cataloged.
She said the court had ignored mountains of evidence that police routinely harass some Americans with unreasonable searches and she warned that legitimizing those stops undermined democracy.
We must not pretend that the countless people who are routinely targeted by police are isolated,' Sotomayor wrote. They are the canaries in the coal mine whose deaths, civil and literal, warn us that no one can breathe in this atmosphere.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/sotomayors-blistering-sctous-dissent-warns-america-is-turning-into-a-prison-state/comments/#disqus