Legal News

Obama DOJ Further Loosens Miranda Restrictions

By Ashby Jones

The rule established in the 1966 Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona has never been overturned.

In theory, law enforcement still needs to tell every suspect they arrest all that business about the right to remain silent, that anything they say can and will be used against them, yadda yadda yadda.

But in reality, for better or worse, the Miranda rule is a shell of its former self. Over the years, courts have consistently chipped away at it, providing exceptions here and there. It seems that police forces these days would practically need a law professor on hand to keep them updated on when it applies.

In any event, the Obama administration took further chunks out of the Miranda recently when it passed new rules allowing investigators to hold domestic-terror suspects longer than others without giving them a Miranda warning. According to the WSJ’s Evan Perez, the rules “significantly expand[] exceptions to the instructions that have governed the handling of criminal suspects for more than four decades.”

Writes Perez:

The move . . . potentially opens a new political tussle over national security policy, as the administration marks another step back from pre-election criticism of unorthodox counterterror methods.

Perez further explains that a 1984 Supreme Court decision amended Miranda by allowing the questioning of suspects for a limited time before issuing the warning in cases where public safety was at issue.

That exception was seen as a limited device to be used only in cases of an imminent safety threat, but the new rules give interrogators more latitude and flexibility to define what counts as an appropriate circumstance to waive Miranda rights.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation memorandum reviewed by the WSJ says the policy applies to “exceptional cases” where investigators “conclude that continued unwarned interrogation is necessary to collect valuable and timely intelligence not related to any immediate threat.”

In other words, goodbye public safety exception.

Matthew Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, said the memo ensures that “law enforcement has the ability to question suspected terrorists without immediately providing Miranda warnings when the interrogation is reasonably prompted by immediate concern for the safety of the public or the agents.”

The new guidelines could blunt criticism from Republicans, but many liberals will likely oppose the move, as might some conservatives who believe the administration doesn’t have legal authority to rein in such rights.

The Justice Department believes it has the authority to tinker with Miranda procedures. Making the change administratively rather than through legislation in Congress, however, presents legal risks.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 24, 2011 (boomark / email).