Next Wednesday, February 27, LCJSP speakers will address car stops and the 4th Amendment. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cert in a car stop case that tests an exception to the exclusionary rule (Herring v. U.S., 07-513). Going on information from a neighboring county that there existed an outstanding warrant for appellant Herring's failure to appear in court to face a felony charge, a deputy followed and pulled Herring over, finding meth on Herring's person and a gun under his seat. Approximately 10-15 minutes after obtaining the information of the outstanding warrant, county employees determined that the warrant was no longer active. Yet Herring had already been taken into custody, and he was eventually found guilty and sentenced - this, despite his efforts to suppress evidence that he maintains was seized in the course of a wrongful arrest. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling agreed with lower court rulings that the evidence was admissible based on what was deemed a good-faith effort by police. The Court also recently heard oral arguments in a similar case. There's an excellent history of the exlusionary rule over at Findlaw.