This'll Certainly End Well

The U.S. Supreme Court has just upheld an Arizona law that sets statewide policies on immigrants' rights. The law penalizes companies who hire undocumented immigrants, and dictates how employers are to verify potential employees' eligibility to work. There are already federal laws covering all of this, but five justices didn't have any problem with individual states making their own regulations concerning the best way to restrict the rights of non U.S. citizens.

And in case you missed it, last Monday the court ruled that police officers didn't really need search warrants if they decided there was an emergency:

The case came from Lexington, Ky., where police pursuing a drug suspect banged on the door of an apartment where they thought they smelled marijuana. After loudly identifying themselves, police heard movement inside, and suspecting that evidence was being destroyed, kicked in the door. There they found Hollis Deshaun King, smoking marijuana. Police also found cocaine inside the apartment.

As it turned out, King was not the suspect police had been looking for, but the drug evidence in the apartment was more than enough to charge him with multiple crimes. King was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

But the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that the drugs found in the apartment could not be used as evidence because the only emergency circumstances were those created by the police loudly alerting those inside. The state court said that instead of banging on the door and letting the inhabitants know the police were there, the police should have requested a warrant, a procedure that usually takes only a matter of minutes.

The U.S. Supreme Court, however, disagreed with the state court.

Um, I get it that we all hate brown people and people who smoke pot (at least brown people who smoke pot), but uh, the broader implications of these two cases are pretty staggering.

Basically, the Supreme Court decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the freedom rides by expanding states' rights and limiting the right to due process. Whoops!