Friday, June 15, 2007

The Law and Al Qaeda Cell Members Discovered in the US

Orin Kerr writes about a recent 4th Circuit decision in Al-Marri v Wright in What Should Happen to Al Qaeda Cell Members Discovered in the United States? I don't know the case but he constructs what seems like a common hypothetical about evidence obtained via an illegal 4th Amendment search. In this case they happen to be al Qaeda cell members, so what should happen to them? His answer is that the standard throw out the illegally obtained evidence seems wrong. That of course seems wrong to me, the answer is that the cops shouldn't have broken the 4th Amendment and should have obtained a warrant or searched the room when the suspects were there to give permission.

Kerr goes on to talk about the differences between Al-Marri and Hamdan and speculates on how the Supreme Court would likely rule in Al-Marri and all of that seems pretty well reasoned to me.

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