6A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NATION
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2002
Supreme Court protects car searches
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused yesterday to review a challenge of police powers in car searches, the latest post-Sept. 11 example of the justices' siding with law enforcement in a privacy case.
The case, while not related directly to the government's war against terror, raised questions about police authority, which has come under increased scrutiny. Federal judges are also being asked in other cases to decide whether national security justifies curbing previously recognized civil freedoms.
The case that justices turned down yesterday involved police searching a vehicle without a warrant after the driver failed to produce proper identification or proof of ownership. Justices had been asked to overturn a California ruling that expanded police
powers and allowed the searches. They declined, without comment.
The case involved people whose cars were searched after they failed to give officers their driver's licenses and car registrations. Officers decided to search for registration and found drugs.
The state court said warrantless searches were allowed wherever documents "reasonably may be expected to be found." Previously, authorities were allowed to search a car's sun visor and glove compartment for identification papers without a warrant.
Government search powers and related authority issues before the Supreme Court have received increased attention since the terrorist attacks.
Louisiana State University law professor John Baker said some judges may be influenced by current events. "The careful judges and lawyers are aware of the climate we're in, but they're not going to give in to panic on either side," he said.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Supreme Court has ruled that police can question passengers on buses and trains and search for evidence without letting them know they can refuse. Justices also ruled that officers can go into the homes of people on probation to search for evidence of new crimes without always getting warrants. They also agreed to review a ruling that questions the way the government catches and charges suspected drug dealers and terrorists.
National security fears also motivated legal challenges waiting on federal court dockets else where.
"It's a part of a general trend in the Supreme Court and lower federal courts to chip away, sometimes with a big ax and a big whack, at what were 10 to 15
years ago clearly established privacy rights that had support across the political spectrum," said David Kairys, who teaches constitutional law at Temple University.
Ron Right, a criminal law professor at Wake Forest University, warned against reading too much into yesterday's Supreme Court action in the police search case. The Supreme Court gets thousands of petitions each year and reviews about 80, he pointed out.
"They have all sorts of reasons to say no," he said. He acknowledged, however, that "in these times, civil liberties groups and others are especially alert to find signs that the government is overreaching when it investigates, so I think their antennae are up, and I think they are looking at courts for signs."
The cases are Arturo D. v. California, 01-9812, and Hinger v. California, 01-10107.
Democrats say Bush shortchanges science
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Two Democratic congressman contended yesterday that the Bush administration is putting ideology over science, citing appointments to advisory committees and the removal of information from Web sites.
Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Sherrod Brown of Ohio demanded explanations in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
They complained that information about the effectiveness of condoms had been removed from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site; that experts serving on advisory committees were being replaced because their views do not match the administration's; and that HHS is singling out AIDS groups with probing audits.
In addition, they said, information showing that abortion does not increase the risk of breast cancer was removed from a National Institutes of Health Web site.
"Scientific information ... has
been removed, apparently because it does not fit with the administration's ideological agenda," Waxman and Brown wrote.
They charged that "ideology has replaced scientific qualifications" as HHS chooses members of advisory committees. Among other examples, they pointed to a report on a CDC advisory committee on safe lead levels for children. The report found that nominations of respected academics had been withdrawn and replaced with consultants to the industry.
"We are deeply concerned that stacking advisory committees with individuals whose qualifications are ideological rather than scientific will fundamentally undermine the integrity of scientific decision-making at our leading public health agencies," the Democrats wrote.
HHS spokesman Bill Pierce said it is Thompson's prerogative to appoint whomever he chooses for advisory committees. By contrast, he said, Waxman and Brown "would like all of us to follow their agenda, their liberal agenda, on these issues."
Call to police may have been sniper
The Associated Press
ROCKVILLE, Md. — In a tantalizing turn in the hunt for the Washington-area sniper, investigators said yesterday the killer apparently tried to contact them in a phone call that was too garbled to understand. They pleaded with the person to call back.
The announcement came hours after Virginia authorities surrounded a white van in Richmond, Va., and seized two men. Police later said the men, a 24-year-old Mexican and a 35-year-old Guatemalan, had nothing to do with the case and would be deported for immigration violations.
The most intriguing development came from Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, who is in charge of the investigation.
He did not disclose who received the call, when it was made or other details.
Moose disclosed for the first time that a call had been received from someone of high interest to investigators — but the call was muddled.
But investigators think that the call may have come from the sniper and that the caller was the same person who left a note and phone number Saturday night at the scene of the latest shooting, a law enforcement source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
For the second consecutive day, Moose seemed intent on establishing a dialogue with the killer. On Sunday, he publicly pleaded with the note writer to call authorities.
rereaday, he said, "The message that needs to be delivered is that we are going to respond to a message that we have received. We are preparing our response at this time."
Moose said he could not discuss the message further.
The flurry of activity raised hope that there had been a break in the search for the sniper who has killed nine people and critically wounded three others in Virginia, Maryland and Washington since Oct. 2.
The latest attack came Saturday night in a steakhouse parking lot in Ashland, just north of Richmond. The victim, a 37-year-old man, was felled by a single shot to the stomach.
He remained in critical but stable condition at a Richmond hospital yesterday after having his spleen and parts of his pancreas and stomach removed. Surgeons removed the bullet from the victim, and a ballistics test linked the slug to the sniper.
New head restraints, seat backs lower incidence of whiplash
Surgeon Rao Ivatury said the man was conscious,but would need additional surgery in the next few days.
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - New vehicle head restraints and seat back designs are reducing whiplash, the most commonly reported injury in auto accidents, according to an insurance industry study being released today.
Traditionally, head restraints have been too low and far from a motorist's head to protect against whiplash in rear-end crashes. But
recently many vehicle models have redesigned head restraints and seat backs to keep the motorist's head and torso moving together when the vehicle is hit from behind.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety examined injury claims for those models before and after the improved head restraints and seat backs were installed and found whiplash claims were cut by as much as one-half.
Whiplash is caused when muscles, ligaments and nerves in the head and neck are jerked suddenly, most commonly in rear-end collisions. Pain can last for as little as a few hours, but sometimes persists for years or even permanently.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates more than 800,000 people get whiplash every year,and related costs total $5.2 billion.
Brian O'Neill, president of the
institute, said many manufacturers ignored whiplash injuries for a long time, assuming many were bogus claims to get insurance money.
"There used to be a view this wasn't a real injury, that this was just the American legal system at work," he said.
"Yes, we've got the fakes and the cheats and the exaggerators, but we've also got people with real injury that can last a long time."
The study examined 2,641 claims from Nationwide, Progressive and State Farm insurance companies for four new designs:
Saab's active head restraints automatically move upward toward the back of the head when an occupant's torso sinks back into the seat during a rear-end crash.
Active restraints reduced whiplash by 43 percent.
Restraints in the Ford Taurus
and Mercury Sable are installed higher, closer to the back of most occupants' heads. Whiplash claims dropped 18 percent with this design.
Whiplash claims dropped 49 percent in the Volvo S70, which has higher head restraints and a special hinge at the bottom of the seat back that allows it to move back during a crash.
For more information, go to http://www.highwaysafety.org.
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