No. 09-1272 - Kentucky v. King
“ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY” [1]
No. 09-1272 Title: Kentucky, Petitioner v. Hollis Deshaun King
The issue in No. 09-1272 is a simple one. Eliminate 'ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY." 'ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY" is a judge made law that has no place in a free society of equal persons. No one can operate in a society of free and equal persons with immunity.
“The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws whenever he receives an injury. One of the first duties of government is to afford that protection. In Great Britain, the King himself is sued in the respectful form of a petition, and he never fails to comply with the judgment of his court.” Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803)
The protection of the law in this case, if the police had been wrong in breaking down the door, would have been Mr. King’s 1st Amendment Right:
“Congress shall make no law… prohibiting the right of the people… to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
All cost and damages would have been recoupable from the "Government" authority. And I would think that the police-person’s superior would have, at minimum, made very big Black Mark on the perpetrators, the police-person’s record. And if happened on a regular basis, with the same officer: I would expect he would be fired and prosecuted under Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242, Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law[2]
In that the police were wrong in their assertion of who was in the apartment, they were not wrong in regard to what authorized them at the door to forcible enter the apartment.
If while the Police were searching the apartment building hallways they had heard a cry for “HELP.” They would have had neither regret nor issue with breaking down the door. The smell of marijuana outside a Kentucky apartment was legally a cry for help from society; help us enforce our marijuana laws.
[1] Bradley v. Fisher, 80 U.S. 13 Wall. 335 (1871)(origination), Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547 (1967) (Judges), Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409 (1976) (prosecutors) and Briscoe v. LaHue, 460 U.S. 325 (1983) (all persons)
[2] This statute makes it a crime for any person acting under color of law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to willfully deprive or cause to be deprived from any person those rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution and laws of the U.S.
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