This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—January 22

[Valin]

Bench Memo:

Ed Whelan

January 22, 2013

 

(Snip)

 

1996—Federal district judge Harold Baer rules (in United States v. Bayless) that New York City police officers did not have reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot when they observed a car with a Michigan license plate moving slowly in the pre-dawn hours in a neighborhood known for drug trafficking, saw the car double-park, observed four males cross the street in single file and, without speaking with the driver, deposit duffle bags in the trunk of the car, and saw the men scatter when they noticed that the officers were observing them. Dismissing this last fact, Baer opines that publicity about the prosecution of a corrupt police officer in that neighborhood eliminated any inference that the men were engaged in evasive conduct. Indeed, “had the men not run when the cops began to stare at them, it would have been unusual.” Finding that the investigatory stop by the police violated the Fourth Amendment, Baer orders suppression of the evidence of the 34 kilograms of cocaine and two kilograms of heroin found in the duffle bags in the trunk.

 

Amidst the ensuing public outcry over Baer’s ruling—including comments by President Clinton that he might try to get his own appointee to resign—Baer reverses himself two months later and laments the “hyperbole (dicta) in my initial decision [that] regretfully may have demeaned the law-abiding men and women who make Washington Heights their home and the vast majority of the dedicated men and women in blue who patrol the streets of our great City.”