The Right Decision

As a Mediator I have lots of contact with judges, lawyers and cops and I respect their opinions on many matters. In my experience they are usually straight up and hardworking in their job and believe that the justice system works more often than it fails. The past few days have seen lots of comments from my friends about the Supreme Court decision that forbids law enforcement from looking at your cell phone without a search warrant.  The Justices concluded that an invesigator can’t even look at your phone directory without a warrant.

The media, as usual found a number of people who wept bitter tears over the fact that investigators couldn’t search through an individuals private data without approval and that this meant “the end of law enforcement as we know it”.  When I first heard that argument my reaction was to call “bull shit” and wonder why the talking head on the TV couldn't  remember our Constitutional privacy rights that are central to our society. With those thoughts in mind I roamed the internet reading the thoughts of people who operate our justice system across the country.  I also listened carefully to the comments of the people I work with in the system and without exception all of them feel that the decision of the Court was right and proper.

My personal observation is that people who are engaged in protecting and maintaining society are usually more aware of the fragility of our social order and the importance of protecting the individual and collective rights of our Constitution. Those who would change our society to fit their own concepts of the social structure are in for a rude surprise if they think that the justice system agrees with them.