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Recent Blog Posts in March 2011 |
| March 30, 2011 |
| U.S Senators Are Requesting Apple to Get Rid of DUI Checkpoints Alerting Apps |
| Posted By Admin |
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Senators are requesting that Apple and other companies remove the internet applications that inform motorists of DUI checkpoints. On Tuesday, four democratic senators wrote a letter to Apple, Google, and Research in Motion to persuade the companies to remove apps that provide users with information about DUI checkpoints.
"With more than 10,000 Americans dying in drunk-driving crashes every year, providing access to applications that alert users to
DUI checkpoints is harmful to public safety," according to the letter, which was signed by Sens. Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Frank Lautenberg, and Mark Udall.
The senators asked the companies to remove the apps.
"One application contains a database of DUI checkpoints updated in real-time. Another application, with more than 10 million users, also allows users to alert each other to DUI checkpoints in real time," they wrote. "Giving drivers a free tool to evade checkpoints, putting innocent families and children at risk, is a matter of public concern."
Some History:
In 1993 the Michigan Supreme Court held that DUI roadblocks were unconstitutional, stating that warrantless stops were a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. American citizens are not supposed to be stopped without reasonable suspicion to believe that they had committed a crime.
The United States Supreme Court later reversed that decision in Michigan V. Sitz. According to Chief Justice Rehnquist, the stops were violations of citizens' rights- but found that these were only minimal violations. The importance of ensuring safety on the highways outweighed the minimal violations. The court left to the states the role of determining how to minimize those violations.
In the landmark case of Ingersoll v. Palmer, the California Supreme Court set the guidelines mentioned in Sitz. The mandatory procedures included "advance publicity".
Advance publicity is essential to the maintenance of a constitutionally permissible sobriety checkpoint. Publicity not only reduces the minimal violations, but it also increases the deterrent effect of the checkpoint.
In State ex rel. Ekstrom v. Justice Ct. of State, supra, 663 P.2d 992, at page 1001 it explains the value of advance publicity: "Such publicity would warn those using the highways that they might expect to find roadblocks designed to check for sobriety; the warning may well decrease the chance of apprehending 'ordinary' criminals, but should certainly have a considerable deterring effect by either dissuading people from taking 'one more for the road,' persuading them to drink at home, or inducing them to take taxicabs.
If you or someone you know is being charged with a DUI, contact our office today to set up a free face-to-face consultation with one of our Los Angeles criminal defense attorneys. The penalties involved with a DUI can be very serious and it is important to have an experienced DUI attorney on your side. At the
Hedding law firm, we have a combined 75 years of experience and have been successful in dozens of cases like these.
Any one of these goals, if achieved, would have the salutary effect of interfering with the lethal combination of alcohol and gasoline. Advance notice would limit intrusion upon personal dignity and security because those being stopped would anticipate and understand what was happening." |
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| March 15, 2011 |
| Former President of MADD Arrested for DUI |
| Posted By Admin |
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Debra Oberlin, a former president of the no longer operating Gainsville's MADD, was arrested on a DUI charge. Oberlin, 48, was arrested after having difficulty on a field sobriety test. She registered a .234 and .239 on the
breath test. An officer spotted Oberlin driving erratically at about 1:10 a.m., she was swerving and crossing lanes according to the arrest report. The arresting officer wrote that Oberlin smelled of alcohol and had watery, bloodshot and dilated eyes. The report states that Oberlin told the officer she had four beers.
If you or someone you know is being charged with a DUI, contact our office today to set up a free face-to-face consultation with one of our Los Angeles criminal defense attorneys. The penalties involved with a DUI can be very serious and it is important to have an experienced DUI attorney on your side. At the
Hedding law firm we have a combined 75 years of experience and have been successful in dozens of cases like these.
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