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.
"Joshua Engel is a Harvard-educated career prosecutor who recently left a post as chief legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Public Safety."
ReplyDeleteI 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.