Legal News

From the New Jersey Law Journal:

U.S. HIGH COURT LIMITS WARRANTLESS VEHICLE SEARCHESThe U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that police need a warrant to search the vehicle of someone they have arrested if the person is locked up in a patrol cruiser and poses no safety threat to officers. The Court's 5-4 decision in a case from Arizona puts new limits on the ability of police to search a vehicle immediately after the arrest of a suspect, particularly when the alleged offense is nothing more serious than a traffic violation. Justice John Paul Stevens said in the majority opinion that warrantless searches still may be conducted if a car's passenger compartment is within reach of a suspect who has been removed from the vehicle or there is reason to believe evidence will be found of the crime that led to the arrest.

REASONABLE-CONTINUATION DOCTRINE JUSTIFIES SECONDARY SEARCH

Following the lead of the federal courts, a New Jersey appeals court ruled Tuesday that law enforcement officials can rely on the "reasonable continuation" doctrine when they decide to conduct additional searches of a suspect's property following a valid initial search. The Appellate Division ruling, in State v. Finesmith, A-1056-08, means prosecutors will be able to use evidence of child pornography seized from a suspect's laptop computer, even though police did not find the laptop during the initial search of the suspect's home and only learned of its location when a detective questioned him after he had invoked his right to counsel. The warrant authorized the police to search the home for "any and all computers" and the court said it was clear the police would have considered their search of the home incomplete without finding the laptop.

司徒華、蔡耀昌 北美巡迴訪問 Szeto Wah & Richard Tsoi North American Tour

“Remember June 4th, Inherit the goals of those before us; Pass on the torch, and Relay the message of democracy to those after us” are the objectives of Hong Kong activists Mr. Szeto Wah's and Mr. Richard Tsoi's North American tour. For the past two days, Mr. Szeto and Mr. Tsoi have been delivering this message to the Chinese community in New York. Yesterday, Mr. Szeto and Mr. Tsoi appeared on WZRC AM 1480 in the morning and on Chinese Radio New York (http://www.chineseradiony.com/) in the afternoon. Both radio stations broadcast in Cantonese Chinese and service the greater New York metroploitan area. Earlier this afternoon, Mr. Szeto Wah and Mr. Richard Tsoi delivered their respective speeches to an audience tightly-packed inside the conference room at the Chinese Consolidated Benovelent Association (中華公所) in New York's Chinatown.

It was twenty years ago in April to June 1989 that students in Beijing held one of the largest patrotic pro-democarcy, anti-corruption sit-in demonstrations in modern Chinese history. The death of the popular Chinese reformist, former party secretary Hu Yao Bang, and the widespread corruprtion and price manipulation of commodities by government officials ignited the idealistic student movement which advocate an end to unfair privileges and illegal dealings of government officials. The movement quickly turned into a call for democracy and reform, and spontaneous demonstrations organized by sympathatic citizens appeared in cities across the country.

On May 15, 1989, party secretary Zhao Zi Yang declared that the student movement was patriotic and called for an end to the hunger strike. However, on May 20th, premier Li Peng labeled the student movement as a riot/rebellion and declared martial law on Beijing. On June 3, 1989, troops and armored vehicles moved in on Tiananmen Square. At 4:00 AM on June 4, the final crackdown came with tanks rolling in onto the square.

Mr. Szeto, one of the founders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, has been calling for a vindication of the student movement for the past twenty years. He stated that an official vindication of the movement is the first step towards a real democracy for China.

This author was a college student in Hong Kong during those critical months and shares similiar sentiments towards the objectives as expounded by Mr. Szeto, and wishes that Mr. Szeto and the Alliance will continue their good work.

It was a privilege to listen to Mr. Szeto again, after twenty years, and in New York.