6 ms·
Surprising that a judge doesn't make a mistake all the freaking time. The legal system is a religion, it has little basis in reason.
by x5n1 11y ago
Surprising that a judge doesn't make a mistake all the freaking time. The legal system is a religion, it has little basis in reason.
- avn2109 11y agoThe judge does make mistakes all the freaking time. But in practice the system is so stacked against the defendant that this effect is negligible.
- tptacek 11y agoThink in terms of branches of government. The executive branch investigates crimes, and the judicial adjudicates them. The exclusionary rule is designed to punish the executive branch for abusing the Fourth Amendment. But if it's the judge that's mistaken, it's the judicial, not the executive, at fault, and the incentive behind the exclusionary principle ceases to exist. (If it helps: the US's exclusionary rule is significantly stronger and more consistent than those of European countries, particularly the UK.)
- rayiner 11y agoIndeed, the problem here is too much reason (not applying the exclusionary rule when the incentives it seeks to create do not apply), and not enough religion (always applying the exclusionary rule to benefit the accused when the government makes a mistake).
- ta0n0n0 11y agoDoesn't the fact that a judge's career depends on promotion by the executive branch create such an incentive?
- klodolph 11y agoIt's more complicated than that... in order for the judge to abuse the system this way, the police would have to be acting in good faith, but still bring a groundless request to the judge, who would have to figure out that the warrant was groundless but decide to issue it anyway. That's a pretty unlikely scenario. Here's a comic about the 4th amendment: http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=1604 http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=1604
- thaumasiotes 11y agoWhy should there be no penalty to the judicial branch for abusing the fourth amendment?
- tptacek 11y agoAgain, in Europe, it's considered a little weird that we have an exclusionary rule that applies to any branch of government. But the reason is: judges aren't abusing the Fourth Amendment; they're the arbiters of it.
- thaumasiotes 11y agoOnly the Supreme Court can claim that; lower judges are overruled all the time (in some sense).
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]