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Originally Posted by Captain Bill  I went out on the web and looked at the Villamonte-Marquez decision |
Well, that was 25 years ago, and I have no idea how it has been interpreted and what effect it has had as precedent, or even if it has been superceded. Maybe someone with a LexisNexis subscription can look it up and let us know. For someone who hasn't read the case (and I don't blame you) the dissent states, among other things:
"It also holds that police on a roving, random patrol may stop and board any vessel, at any time, on any navigable waters accessible to the open sea, with no probable cause or reasonable suspicion to believe that there has been a crime or a border crossing, and without any limits whatever on their discretion to impose this invasion of privacy." and;
"Today, for the first time in the nearly 200-year history of the Fourth Amendment, the Court approves a completely random seizure and detention of persons and an entry onto private, noncommercial premises by police officers, without any limitations whatever on the officers' discretion or any safeguards against abuse."
As you say, the dissent does not have the same legal force as the opinion itself, but it does represent the opinion of a Supreme Court justice on the meaning of a Supreme Court decision, and that beats my two pair. Also, if you care to take on the Feds on this issue, and your savvy lawyer does manage to eat their lunch, he or she will also have eaten your lunch, your breakfast, your dinner and your complimentary peanuts by the time you pay him or her off. You can't afford justice even if you're right.
But the question, as we say on the Supreme Court, is moot. After the hysteria of the intervening years, law enforcement will do anything it cares to do. If you object, they cry "drugs" or "terrorist", and you are dead meat. (Been through airport security lately?) There is no recourse unless you have a lot more money than anyone here; and if you do, you are insulated from the problem anyway. When was the last time Warren Buffett went through airport security? When was the last time Tiger Woods's yacht was boarded and searched?
Don't get me wrong - I'm not crying "eat the rich" here. I say good for them, and if you are content with getting different treatment from law enforcement, then good for you. Just for the record, I have never been abused or harassed by law enforcement; and being a straight white solvent property-owning male of a certain age (who lives ashore, I should add), I probably never will be. But when I see my neighbor's house on fire, I feel I should at least alert the neighborhood.