Illegal Presence in US Not A Crime, Court Says

[Bradley in DC]

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200708/NAT20070821c.html

[dsentell]

This is such an outrage, though not surprising!

... and the North American Union comes marching in!

[Colleen]

Wonder what sort of drugs this Judge Kitts has been imbibing. When everyone is a criminal except the ones who break the law?

Maybe we're all on the wrong side of the law now. :D

George Orwell must be turning in his grave, on that one.

[Bradley in DC]

Maybe we're all on the wrong side of the law now. :D


Colleen, you may be on to something--there are WAY too many laws! Chances are we're all on the wrong side of some of them.

[PennCustom4RP]

I just don't now. Why would one who cannot meet the standards of probation be set free, let alone declared not a criminal? Americans are sentenced every day with terms of no probation, no parole. The fact that this person automatically cannot meet probation standards because of their illegal staus, should mean that they remain incarcerated.
Next question, was this person here illegally even deported?
Kansas is Brownbacks territory, isn't he pro Amnesty? I wonder if he had any sway in this matter.

[tati4freedom]

The attacks on reason by the judicial equivalent of the Three Stooges is overwhelming. Next, we will hear that if a criminal is caught breaking into your house, he can be arrested and charged with a crime, but if he is IN your home, he's safe. He's just a guest in your house. No harm, no foul, because our "justice system" is a fucking joke.

[PennCustom4RP]

The attacks on reason by the judicial equivalent of the Three Stooges is overwhelming. Next, we will hear that if a criminal is caught breaking into your house, he can be arrested and charged with a crime, but if he is IN your home, he's safe. He's just a guest in your house. No harm, no foul, because our "justice system" is a fucking joke.

Hey Tati, thats already the case, if he breaks into your home, and you can escape through another exit, you can't just shoot him, if he runs, you can't shoot him either. If you do, you had better drag him back inside and place him between you and the exit.

[Lord Xar]

I can't quote exactly, but this is local jurisdiciton I believe and there already was a supreme court ruling that said the opposite. I believe this is just a case of a local situation overrulling - the rule of law of the supreme court. I heard this on Al Rantel talking about this..... he sighted already existing ruling that clearly states that ILLEGALS in the country IS breaking the law...

[ChooseLiberty]

The way I read it after a brief scan is that this is a very limited decision dealing with probation and whether there are "substantial and compelling reasons for the departure".

The court is saying that since Martinez hadn't been given a hearing on his illegal status (and deported if he was found illegal), they can't use it against him in a probation hearing.

My take - it's good to make a stink about it since the general public will misinterpret what the court is saying anyway. :D

[Cowlesy]

Drudge needs to see this.

[ChooseLiberty]

Sort of amusing they include this in the decision - more ironic since Brandeis was a subversive.

"Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence. As Mr. Justice Brandeis, dissenting, said in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 485[, 72 L. Ed. 944, 48 S. Ct. 564] (1928): 'Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. . . . If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law into himself; it invites anarchy.'"