Court Upholds Sixth Amendment Rights (Scalia Actually Makes Sense?)

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- The Constitution guarantees a criminal defendant may confront his accusers, and that right means prosecutors can't use a wife's taped statement to police to try to undermine her husband at trial, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The high court sided with a man convicted of assaulting an acquaintance he had accused of trying to rape his wife. Sylvia Crawford did not testify at Michael Crawford's trial, but prosecutors played a tape they claimed showed her story did not match his.

Michael Crawford's lawyers had no opportunity to cross-examine Sylvia Crawford about the tape, a unanimous Supreme Court said.

"That alone is sufficient to make out a violation of the Sixth Amendment," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote.

more...............

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-scotus-witnesses,0,3731543.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[Sandpiper]

1. The most consistent thing about Scalia

Is the intellectual inconsistency of his opinions. He always pays lip service to the idea of "strict constructionism" and denounces "judicial activism." But, the truth is, when it comes to constitutional issues that offend Fat Tony's sense of conservative morality, he could care less about strict construction.

Scalia does get some things right, but as they say, a broken clock is right twice a day.

[mobuto]

2. Nino's a judicial activist himself

when he feels like it. Witness Bush v. Gore.

[indepat]

4. Or the Constitution

[struggle4progress]

3. Yeah, well ...

about ten days ago (by refusing to take on a case that isn't supposed to appear on any dockets) they apparently decided not to support your sixth amendment right to a public trial. Try to explain THAT one to anyone without sounding like a whacked out paranoiac: minimal press coverage and no public record.

[Trillo]

5. Where is the Truth?

Are frivolous lawsuits and frivolous prosecutions the flip sides of the same phenomenon?

Perhaps the truth isn't in the middle, but is somewhere else.

[BeFree]

7. Lawsuits vs prosecutions

Lawsuits are charges brought forward by citizens. Prosecutions are brought forward by the state. The citizens should never be denied the right to bring up a lawsuit, but prosecutions should always be held to the highest standard. The state needs to be as close to perfect as can be right from the start, but citizens should be allowed to stretch things in order for them to have the possibility of making their case.

[Toucano]

6. Catch-22

If two people's stories match, they say they're in collusion.

The their stories differ, they say somebody's a liar.

[Khephra]

8. kick

[VolcanoJen]

9. Kick!!

:kick:

[thexanman]

10. He was right about flag burning

Still hate him though.