I recently quipped that celebration of the Fourth Amendment is "rather like wearing a Kurt Cobain t-shirt, commemorating something that's dead and anachronistic, however laudable or memorable for those of a certain age who could still recall when it was relevant." Well, somebody out there hopes to prove me wrong. Joshua Engel is a Harvard-educated career prosecutor who recently left a post as chief legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Public Safety and launched a new blog called Stockycat, "Dedicated to the idea that effective law enforcement is not incompatible with a vigorous interpretation of the Fourth Amendment." He's announced he'll focus mainly on its intersection with modern technology.
Engel already has offered up several promising posts. Notably, Can the Police Put a GPS Device on Your Car Without a Warrant?, and If the cops put a GPS device on your car do you have to give it back? Another interesting item discusses a case presently before SCOTUS regarding the Fourth Amendment and child abuse interviews. In yet another post, he provocatively critiques the ACLU from a libertarian stance, wondering if they (and by extension, many others) haven't jumped the gun by ignoring privacy concerns from GPS tracking of offenders (good point: the data be at least protected and at some point destroyed; I have no idea what Texas does on that score). And he questions whether police can search the contents of an abandoned cell phone without a warrant. Good stuff, gimme more! Welcome to the blogosphere, Josh. You've picked an excellent, much-needed niche. Via Doug Berman.
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"Joshua Engel is a Harvard-educated career prosecutor who recently left a post as chief legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Public Safety."
I am not sure that "left" his position is exactly how it happened. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Mr. Engel was first suspended and demoted, see http://bit.ly/9pHBvn, and ultimately fired for misconduct, documented here http://bit.ly/d5m4eF and here http://bit.ly/dwXJtP. Interestingly, he has posted an entry on his new blog discussing the prosecutorial misconduct case "Connick v. Thompson" currently being heard by the Supreme Court. He says in his commentary, "I take a hard line on prosecutorial ethics and discretion. Really? He says in his blog bio that "Prior to joining the Department of Public Safety, I was one of the most respected and successful felony prosecutors in Ohio." Can't help but wonder just how many he hung out to dry during his term as a prosecutor using the methods he attempted against Inspector General Thomas P. Charles.
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