The Online Freakout Over Yesterday's Supreme Court Decisions

Posted By TheNewsCommenter: From Reason.com: “The Online Freakout Over Yesterday's Supreme Court Decisions”. Below is an excerpt from the article.

Getting the Supreme Court wrong. Supreme Court decisions can have a big impact, so it's understandable that people react to them seriously and sometimes emotionally. But reactions to recent Court decisions have been a bit…extra. There are a lot of pundits and court watchers out there catastrophizing the results, often based on misunderstandings or misrepresentations of what the rulings actually said.

The most egregious new instance of this comes in response to a Court decision yesterday that cops can't be sued under federal civil rights law for failing to read crime suspects their Miranda rights.

But the Court's decision in no way means that cops aren't still required to read people their Miranda rights. As my colleague Scott Shackford noted yesterday, "the Court isn't overturning Miranda v. Arizona, the 1966 Supreme Court ruling that determined that it's a violation of a suspect's Fifth Amendment rights for police to interrogate him or her about a crime without informing them they have the right to remain silent and the right to request an attorney."

Nor does the decision say that cops failing to read someone their Miranda rights will now have no consequences; evidence obtained before reading someone their rights will still be inadmissible at trial. And it certainly doesn't mean that people no longer have a right to remain silent when faced with law enforcement questioning.

Alas, a lot of people with significant social media followings have been spreading the bogus ideas that the court just obliterated Miranda rights and a right to not self-incriminate entirely. For instance, progressive writer Charlotte Clymer tweeted: "SCOTUS just gutted Miranda rights -- you know, that thing where law enforcement has to inform you of your civil rights upon being arrested? That's gutted now."

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It is not gutted. It is not even touched. Miranda, and its holding that evidence obtained in violation of the 5th & 6th Amendments gets excluded at trial without proper warnings, remains today exactly as it has since 1966.

— Damin Toell (@damintoell) June 23, 2022

While the SCOTUS ruling on Vega vs Tekoh doesn't get rid of Miranda rights altogether, it continues the trend of placing police above the law and unable to be held responsible for their actions in civil court.

It's time to End Qualified Immunity for good.

— Classical Liberal Caucus (@LP_CLC) June 23, 2022

It has become necessary to dissolve the Supreme Court of the United States.

The first step is for a state the "court" has now forced guns upon, to ignore this ruling.

Great. You're a court? Why and how do think you can enforce your rulings?#IgnoreTheCourt

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) June 23, 2022

mindblowing the shit these people will believehttps://t.co/ichVqxxnWP pic.twitter.com/iMsL75tnIh

— Peter Bonilla (@pebonilla) June 24, 2022

There it is. Testimony on the former president directing DOJ and DHS to seize voting machines. Surreal to hear it like this.

— Chris Krebs (@C_C_Krebs) June 23, 2022

A man was shot in an altercation, and managed to wrestle the gun from the assailant, who fled. Then the victim got charged with unlawful possession. He waited 3+ years for a trial, and refused to take a plea. It took a jury 75 minutes to acquit him.https://t.co/KMRNBVEVYT pic.twitter.com/iu1kH2PFFB

— Peter Bonilla (@pebonilla) June 23, 2022