Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Louis Brandeis was a Supreme Court Justice from 1916 to 1939. He invented the Brandeis Brief, a collection of empirical data to help guide SCOTUS decisions. Justice Brandeis has many memorable quotes in his opinions. The current DWI hysteria that has led to blood draw warrants inspired me to choose this one.

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

This quote is from a SCOTUS case regarding government wiretaps. Brandeis dissented a decision that found telephone wiretaps “reasonable” under the 4th Amendment. For more quotes from LB click here.

Thanks to all the readers who emailed me this story. I haven’t had much time to blog, but this is an important development.

Here are the details. A Tarrant County judge threw out blood drawn by the Dalworthington Police in a 2005 DWI case. Too cheap or impatient to use real medical personel, the Dalworthinton Police decided that they should remove blood from DWI suspects.

A judge threw out the blood evidence in a pre trial hearing. Appeals are certain.

I’ll be celebrating the 4th and not blogging tommorow.. However, the web is full of great writing to keep you entertained and informed. Here are some items to check out between hot dogs, fireworks, and JP Souza music.

Happy Birthday DEA

A great article by Russ Bellvile that celebrates the 35th anniversary of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Quoting Russ-

I’m back from Rusty Duncan. I spent Saturday on Lake Travis and had a great time. Austin is a wonderful city and a great place to spend a weekend. Maybe I could franchise someday and have an Austin branch.

Ethics

Like most CLE seminars the Rusty Duncan conference had some speakers on attorney ethics. I was embarrassed to learn that criminal defense lawyers had the most grievances in 2007. I hope the defense bar will take a hard look at the practices that commonly lead to grievances.

I’m in San Antonio for the Rusty Duncan conference. This is my first RD and I am very impressed with the quality of the speakers. Here are some quick thoughts.

1. I think I saw Mark Bennett, philosopher/attorney. I expected him to be dressed more like Socrates.

2. There was a speech by Cathy Cochran on unanimous verdicts. We didn’t meet.

I just read the post on Grits about the Rothgery case. The opinion is 49 pages and I won’t have time to go through the whole thing today. However, the holding could have positive implications for shutting down the practice of DWI forced blood draw warrants.

“A criminal defendant’s initial appearance before a magistrate judge, where he learns the charge against him and his liberty is subject to restriction, marks the initiation of adversary judicial proceedings that trigger attachment of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Attachment does not also require that a prosecutor (as distinct from a police officer) be aware of that initial proceeding or involved in its conduct. Pp. 5–20.”

It’s not a far leap from that holding to ruling that when the police, prosecutors, and “friendly” judges team up to sign blood warrants that the defendant should have the right to an attorney. After all the prosecutor is involved, the defendant knows the charge against him, and that his liberty is subject is restriction. Yet another reason these blood draws should be unconstitutional.