Pixiq

aren’t there laws in most places that govern when, where and why it’s safe and legal to stop on the side of the road? prosecute him on that, if applicable, fine. but for taking photos?? wow.

Activist judges take away rights!
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Did the guy even stop to take pictures, or was this as he was driving by?
Michaelk42 recently posted..Unsurprisingly- Pogan gets no real punishment

Hopefully he reported the theft and the perpertraitors brought to justice by the long arm of the law. Oh wait, they are the law.

Basically, as a citizen, we now must do ANYTHING a cop tells us to, immediately and without hesitation or discussion or we will be charged with obstruction / resisting arrest. How dare you so much as slap one of these deities as you may get a mandatory 25 sentence depending on where it happens. The servant has become the master and the judges would never go against them for fear of making a cop frown.

We need make sure that all conservative judges are removed from the bench. They have to respect for the Constitution. They just want to forward their right wing agenda. I have never seen a conservative judge expand the rights of the people except on gun issues.

They have no respect for the Constitution

This ruling needs to be appealed, badly, because the basis upon which the judge came to her decision is very faulty.

To be fair, all of his Constitutional claims were upheld except the “First Amendment right to take photographs.” (OK, technically, they were “not dismissed,” but it’s still early.) Hopefully, he’s still going to win on his 14th, 4th and 5th Amendment claims.

http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20108250324

After I posted that comment, I realized the irony considering the header on this blog. In any case, we can certainly hope that this will lead the 9th Circuit to fall in line with other Circuits and recognize the First Amendment right to take photographs. Remember, until a case gets appealed to them, the law is whatever the precedent says it is.

Uhh, is that ruling indicative of a trend in the USA or because it’s a US territory? These days I’m finding the constitution doesn’t even apply in USA.

I hate the united states more every day. Treating a cell phone like this, just imagine what a large DSLR or MF camera would evoke. If I had any significant savings (they are gone like millions of others) I would leave. These cops and judges get more brazen each week. The general public says nothing or actually takes their side. I am now convinced that most people support the slip into martial law and tyranny.

The 9th Circuit is a pretty screwed up court, which is why they routinely get overturned on appeal.

Happy Tinfoil,

The more citizens carry guns, the less authoritarian cops will be. An armed society is a polite society. And since the camera is the “new” gun, it stands to reason that photographers should be carrying guns with them wherever they go.

As written by the 9th: “Guam is a federal instrumentality, enjoying only those rights conferred to it by Congress, and its “Bill of Rights” is a federal statute.   Not even a sovereign State may interpret a federal statute or constitutional provision in a way contrary to the interpretation given it by the U.S. Supreme Court.” (Guam v. Guerrero (9* Cir. 2002) No. 00-71247.)

So unless Congress said its laws stops on Guam’s shores, I think the District Court Judge’s ruling will be squashed.

OTOH, maybe North Carolina judge Beth Dixon thinks she’s actually in Guam?
Michaelk42 recently posted..Unsurprisingly- Pogan gets no real punishment

Since the first paragraph implies Adkins was operating a motor vehicle while photographing, the cops could have cited him for improper control of said vehicle but nothing more. Heck, even in the Capital next to the FBI Building one can film from across the street a car being lifted by crane into the building but if you cross the street to get a closer look, you’ll get shooed back by the cops but they won’t take your video camera.

I wonder what gives the right to cops to keep the cellphone. Are they going to give it to one of their kids as a Christmas present? Cops are no better than THIEVES!

She was really grasping if she used that case as a precedent since they did not really have the same premise. To acknowledge that other districts in the country allow this activity, but then base it on this one semi-related case is really sad. Hopefully future cases on the mainland don’t cite this case from Guam.
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9th circuit is the largest circuit, so while more cases are overturned, percentage wise it is close to the other circuits. We can still hope this case is overturned, but don’t expect it just because it is 9th circuit

AAAAAAAACCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK! I can’t stand this shit anymore. Drives me nuts. You’d think judges would have gone to law school and taken constitutional law classes…

Rosacea #18: “She was really grasping if she used that case as a precedent since they did not really have the same premise.” That would depend on how the precedent was worded and if it considered to have merit. Sometimes, well worded rulings of one court can cross jurisdictions and influence decisions of other courts. Take for example, “Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. (400 F. Supp. 2d 707, Docket no. 4cv2688)” , while technically limited to United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania it is worded in such a way that it would have merit in other courts should they have the same type of case appearing there.

“Drives me nuts. You’d think judges would have gone to law school and taken constitutional law classes…”

So where did you go to law school?

“An armed society is a polite society.”

Because America is sooooo polite compared to the rest of the world, particularly those countries that don’t try to arm every man, woman, and child.

@Jay

Oh, they did. Someone has to have an in-depth knowledge of how constitutional rights are supposed to work if they’re going to try this hard to undermine them.
Michaelk42 recently posted..Unsurprisingly- Pogan gets no real punishment

(Besides, if you have to go to law school in order to understand the law, how are average people supposed to obey the law?)
Michaelk42 recently posted..Unsurprisingly- Pogan gets no real punishment

Each circuit has its own procedures and precedents. A district judge in any other part of the 9th circuit could easily have made the same statement.

@Bob #5 – Speak in fallacy much Bob? There are PLENTY of liberal judges that have made horrible rulings with respect to people’s rights as well. There are plenty of liberal judges that push their left wing agendas as well. Don’t be so close minded.

This isn’t about left or right, this is about the 1st amendment, and both sides are to blame for looking the other way when cops folly.

I agree with Rance. Since when does defending our Constitutional rights become partisan? It’s universal. Whether Dem, Rep, or 3rd. Perhaps if we all saw things together that apply to all (such as the issues that Carlos brings up) then we’d actually get something done instead of sitting around whining about who caused the problem to begin with.
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I used to live in Guam (my father was in the navy) Let me tell you something, they do NOT like white people over there. If Adkins is white that very well could have played a part in the ruling

Rights you do not have any rights, you have privileges. In 1942 when the Japanese AMERICAN Citizens thought they had rights and at the time when they needed them most. They found out that NO you will do what your told You have a right to go right to the internment camps that we have RIGHTFULLY created for you. That has NEVER been overturned. DON’T even pretend that you or anyone else anywhere has anything but the privileges your owners decide to give you.

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just to comment on this article…Guam has a lot of double standards when it comes to the law. While most of the time we do follow “mostly” california laws. I’d like to think that half the people in the office here like to make up what they believe is constitutionally correct. Living here, you get the first hand experience on politics and who benefit from what and since this is a family based “who knows who society” it is filled with corruption! the worst thing about this issue too is that no one seems to care here! the cops pick out our military service members and give them tickets all the time (its their way of making money) and they believe that they are above the law. for instance, they raided our KUAM (local radio office) without search warrants and obtained files that were leaked to the public about the government. Need I say more? …America is not what it used to be!

oh and btw…he pulled over and took pictures…during entire fiasco though they managed to confiscate his camera as part of “Evidence” containing the pictures…An update on that during the court hearing was that when they returned his camera, “all of a sudden” all the pictures had been deleted or erased off the camera. Last I heard on the issue was that the guy was going to his phone provider or something around that sense to recover all the files deleted by the officers.