The Shame Of Arizona

Posted by | April 25, 2010 08:09 | Filed under: Top Stories


by Judge Andrew Napolitano

I cannot begin to tell you how steamed I am when any government violates first principles of our Constitution. Never before in our modern history has an American government purported to give police the power to stop someone because of their appearance and then require the stopped person to prove a negative on the spot–namely, that he or she is not in the US illegally. In the American justice system, the government must prove everything about the defendant’s behavior; it is a profound violation of due process to impose upon the stopped person the obligation of coming forward with any proof of anything in order to avoid the summary loss of freedom. This is a consistent and unchallenged component of our jurisprudence. Someone should ask Governor Jan Brewer (pictured) what an illegal alien looks like–she will not be able to answer. As well, can she tell of a person’s immigration status by looking at that person? I can’t imagine that she could answer in the affirmative, yet she has purported to give to police the mental subjective discretion to do so. This is East Germany and the ante-bellum South all in one.

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Copyright 2010 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

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