Landmark SCOTUS ruling

[SineSwiper]

Lab expert must be present to testify for lab results (per 6th Amendment)

[Mental]

My mind is blown. Not by the ruling, but that Scalia wrote so strongly in favor of due process. O_o

[Tessian]

I read the Fark comments on this, apparently Scalia is a huge fan of due process... even going as far as to rule it was unconstitutional for a rape victim to testify in court over CCTV instead of in person.

As many have said, if anything this just forces prosecutors to prioritize cases... but it's nice to see now that now this kind of evidence won't be automatically considered infallible. More and more cases about labs falsifying records or whatnot.

[Mental]

We got toooo many people in jail anyway. It's about 1%, highest in the developed world according to reliable figures. (Of course, who knows if Russia and China are reporting the right numbers.) It's one of the reasons our economy sucks.

[SineSwiper]

Good. Throw out the drug cases. That'll get rid of a large portion of criminal cases.

EDIT: Just checked the stats. Non-violent drug cases account for staggering 36.6% of all cases.

[SineSwiper]

Does anybody have speed cameras in their city? Use this. How can a speed camera accuse you without having a person on the bench to cross-examine? I would surmise that all speed cameras must follow the same ruling.

[Tessian]

Does anybody have speed cameras in their city? Use this. How can a speed camera accuse you without having a person on the bench to cross-examine? I would surmise that all speed cameras must follow the same ruling.

Do you seriously think that governments didn't already think of that? Speed camera tickets are lowered to the same ranking of basically a parking meter ticket. They are low price and can't take any points from your license and therefore circumvent a lot of the whole due process inconvenience.

I'm just paraphrasing here from memory. I'm positive that they've got a loophole around it, but I may not be exactly right on how. I hate speed cameras too, they need to be banished into a dark pit and then peed on. Luckily none here in my area