Harry Potter and the Supreme Court

Tonight I was reading a case on whether or not the police have the right to arrest someone for traffic violations when in fact are just using the traffic violation arrest as a pretext to be able to search the alleged perpetrator for evidence of other crimes. (ex: they pulled these defendants over for a "traffic violation" but really it was cuz they suspected the kids of doing drugs)

First sign that the defendants were out of luck: Justice Scalia wrote the opinion.

By way of introduction, for those who don't know, Justice Scalia is one of the most conservative Justices currently on the Supreme Court. In other words, he and I almost always disagree. The problem with Scalia, however, is that while I disagree with his conclusion, it is hard to challenge how he got there. He is one of the best arguers out there.

Tonight for example, I was reading this opinion and he starts out innocuously enough. He was just restating the facts of the case and the arguments that the defendants put forth. But the more I read the opinion, the more I kept thinking: "IT'S A TRAP!" Poor defendants never had a chance. And what's more, the longer I read this opinion, the more I had a mental image of Severus Snape writing the opinion. I'm a nerd, I know, but I personally think the resemblance is just a tad uncanny...




p.s. For those of you who think I have officially gone of the law school deep end, I'm inclined to agree.