Fourth Amendment

Joe Arpaio and the MCSO Need a Court-Appointed Babysitter in the Melendres Racial-Profiling Case

Lobbyist Group Going for Its 36th Anti-Abortion Law: Surprise Abortion-Clinic Inspections

The local lobbying organization best known for its fanatical anti-abortion proposals has finally come around with some anti-abortion legislation, after staying quiet for most of the legislative session.CAP apparently has Republican Representative John Kavanagh on a leash, since Kavanagh introduced t ... More >>

DREAMer and DACA-Applicant Octavio Castaneda Flores Free After Eight Months Nonbondable in Maricopa County Jail

The first time I met Octavio Castaneda Flores, he was in county stripes, his hands cuffed to a desk where he sat in the visiting room of Durango Jail. See Also: Bill Montgomery Would Rather Talk About Jodi Arias Than Judge Snow's Order, and Here's Why After Nine Months in Jail for Working Without ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Racial Profiling Case Costs County Over $1 Million So Far, with More to Come

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's legal beagle Tim Casey has indicated that the sheriff's office will appeal federal Judge G. Murray Snow's recent decision, wherein Snow found the MCSO guilty of racial profiling and ordered it to stop. Considering the payday Casey's firm Schmitt Schneck Smyth Casey & Even, P.C. ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Doomsday: Arpaio Loses ACLU Civil Rights Lawsuit, MCSO Enjoined from Racially Profiling Latinos

U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow just handed the ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the law firm Covington & Burling, all Latinos, and everyone who has strived for justice in Maricopa County a reason to celebrate over the long holiday weekend by ruling against Sheriff J ... More >>

In the Legislature, Five Reps Did One Man's Bidding

Constantin Querard's Taxpayer-Paid Bootlickers David Gowan, Steve Montenegro, Carl Seel, Steve Smith, and Kelly Townsend Do Their Master's Bidding

If you're political sleaze-maestro Constantin Querard, the Arizona Legislature is practically your own, personal Downton Abbey. Querard's team of taxpayer-funded butlers, bootblacks and maids is extensive, at least 20, by his own claim, in the both the upper and lower chambers. And on February 21 ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Lawyers Fail to Get Sheriff Off the Hook in Justice Department Lawsuit

Lawyers for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have failed in their attempt to get the Justice Department's racial-discrimination lawsuit tossed.Chief U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver made a ruling this week on the June motion to throw out the suit against Arpaio, the Sheriff's Office, and the coun ... More >>

Arpaio Awaits Justice as Election Looms

Your Gonzo Guide to the Republican National Convention

SB 1070 Oral Arguments on "Papers Please" Section Scheduled for August 21

See also: ACLU Seeks New Injunction on "Papers Please" Portion of SB 1070 See also: SB 1070, SCOTUS, Friendly House, and a Ray of Hope See also: Russell Pearce's Falsehoods, Inaccuracies and Inventions on Channel 12's Sunday Square-Off See also: Russell Pearce Scores Another Win Against Hispanics, M ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Racial Profiling Trial Ends, and Yes, Joe's Still Guilty as Sin

See also: Joe Arpaio's Racial Profiling Trial Begins, and, Yes, He's Guilty as Sin See also: Joe Arpaio's Taliban, Nativist Steve Camarota, and More Problems for the MCSO See also: Joe Arpaio's (ahem) Legal Scholar Brett "Shut Up" Palmer and Flunky Brian Sands Under Oath As U.S. District Judge G. M ... More >>

ACLU Seeks New Injunction on "Papers Please" Portion of SB 1070

See also: SB 1070, SCOTUS, Friendly House, and a Ray of HopeSee also: SB 1070: Supreme Court Upholds "Papers Please" Section, Invalidates OthersSee also: The Supreme Court's 1070 Ruling Is No Win for Teabaggers As I anticipated in April, when it became clear that the U.S. Supreme Cou ... More >>

The Supreme Court's 1070 Ruling Is No Win for Teabaggers

SB 1070: Supreme Court Upholds "Papers Please" Section, Invalidates Others

SCOTUSBlog.com is reporting that Section 2(b) of Arizona's immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court as not pre-empted by federal immigration law.Of the court's decision, SCOTISBlog writes, "It was improper for the lower courts to enjoin section 2(b), which require ... More >>

SB 1070 Ruling: States Do Not Have Carte Blanche in Immigration Sphere

If right-wingers such as Arizona's clueless, incompetent Governor Jan Brewer had actually read today's U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Senate Bill 1070, they would not be so quick to issue press releases spinning the court's 5-3 ruling as a victory for xenophobes, or even for the idea of some sort ... More >>

SB 1070: Why Obama Is Partly to Blame for the Racist Bill

SB 1070, SCOTUS, Friendly House, and a Ray of Hope

There's one general conclusion I have after reading and re-reading the transcript of Wednesday's oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court over Arizona Senate Bill 1070: Latinos and their allies cannot rely on the federal government or the courts for a long term solution to the overt bigotry ... More >>

Bill Montgomery Rushes to Arpaio's Aid — Just As Disbarred Predecessor Andy Thomas Used to Do

Joe Arpaio's Lawyer Tim Casey: His Firm Earns $735K So Far Defending Racial Profiling Lawsuit

Two weeks ago, I reported on a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow in the ACLU's big racial-profiling lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Melendres v. Arpaio. During that hearing, Snow scheduled the seven-day trial to begin on July 19.After the hearing, outside the Sandra Day O'C ... More >>

Sheriff Arpaio's Office Commits Worst Racial Profiling in U.S. History, Expert Concludes in DOJ Investigation

Image: Jaimie Peachey Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Perez (left) said today that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office abuses the civil rights of Hispanics.​Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office didn't just commit racial profiling of Latinos, according to the findings of the U. ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Hammered by Politicians, Activists Praising DOJ Report

Supervisor Wilcox, with the DOJ report on Joe's racial-profiling ways...Flanked by community activists and fellow elected leaders at her El Portal restaurant in central Phoenix, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox held aloft the recently-released U.S. Department of Justice report on Sheriff ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Racial Profiling Case: Summary Judgment Hearing Set for December 22

If there were Black Hole of Calcutta for bad sheriffs, is there any doubt that Joe Arpaio would be in it? Arpaio, the biggest un-indicted criminal in Arizona, is responsible for so much malfeasance, illegal activity and human misery, that his Teflon Don persona continues to amaze, even as the n ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Loses Again: Maricopa County Settles for $200K in Mora Racial-Profiling Case

Julio and Julian Mora, who today won big against Sheriff Joe As Sheriff Joe Arpaio plots to humiliate Arizona by deploying a chain gang of illegal immigrants to clean up around Chase Field, where the Major League Baseball All-Star Game is scheduled to take place July 12, there's ample evidence Arpai ... More >>

Morning Poll: Are Cross-Gender Jail Pat-Downs Unconstitutional?

www.news.cnet.com​The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office experienced another newspaper to the nose yesterday when the United States Supreme Court declined to hear a case where a lower court ruled against it in a lawsuit regarding cross-gender jail pat-downs.For many heterosexual, male inmates, a fem ... More >>

Supreme Court Declines to Hear MCSO's Cross-Gender Kinda Nude Inmate Pat-Down Case

​If you're man, and had plans of going to jail to get felt up by a woman, we have some bad news.The United States Supreme Court decided today to not hear the case of a former Maricopa County jail inmate who claims a female detention officer grabbed his junk during a somewhat-nude pat down while he ... More >>

Victory for the ACLU Against Arpaio and Lieutenant Joe Sousa

Federal Judge to Maricopa County Sheriff's Office: DWB (Driving While Brown) Isn't Actually a Crime

fromtheleft.wordpress.com​Apparently it takes a federal judge to tell the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office that being Hispanic isn't actually illegal. More than two years after a Hispanic father-son combo was arrested by MCSO deputies near the site of one of their infamous worksite raids, a feder ... More >>

Cloaked Brutality: The Feds Bury Border Patrol Abuses of Immigrants, But What's Been Unearthed Reveals a Culture of Cruelty

Steven Anderson, Hate-Spewing Tempe Pastor, Acquitted in Checkpoint Protest That Left Him Bloody

  Image: Steven Anderson Steven Anderson was acquitted in the checkpoint stop that left him bloodied. Now he can get back to worrying about homosexuals.​No fan of freedom could appreciate the draconian Border Patrol/Yuma County checkpoints on Interstate 8 near the Arizo ... More >>

SB 1070: Many Shout That Arizona's New Immigration Law Has Awakened a Sleeping Giant Who's Ready to Kick Some Political and Economic Backside

Border Patrol checkpoints near Yuma nab hordes of pot users headed back from the beach