Essays on Afoul

Abstract

This paper puts the legal and ethical issues of physician-assisted suicide in the context of the larger debate on privacy and the right to die, which can be divided into three constituent parts: (1) a patient’s constitutionally protected right to privacy in all matters involving end-of-life treatment decisions. So long as a patient has the mental capacity to make informed consent, the government does not have a legitimate interest to override end-of-life decisions. Critical to the analysis of a patient’s refusal of life-sustaining treatment is the burden of the state to prove a patient did not have ...

Abstract

In the case of United States v. Knight, the Supreme Court had to resolve the constitutional question of whether a warrantless search, executed on the basis of a reasonable suspicion and stipulated as a condition of probation violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. In order to answer this question, the Court had to determine whether, for purposes of the Fourth Amendment, the constitutionality of searches authorized as a condition of probation must have a “probationary purpose.” Ultimately, the Court held that a warrantless search, sustained on the basis of reasonable suspicion and authorized as ...

A law enforcement officer who is corrupt and practicing criminal misconduct is known colloquially as a “dirty cop”. The 2001 movie Training Day featured the actor Denzil Washington cast as a “dirty cop” – a dishonest narcotics detective with a massive ego, who inflates his official income with bribes and kickbacks from drug dealers and others. We all know such people exist in the real world, but how widespread is the problem and what, typically, do they do and why? This paper seeks to answer these questions.

Magnitude of the Problem

“Dirty cops” are – regrettably – to be found anywhere and just about everywhere. INTERPOL, which is “the world’ ...