LETTER TO THE EDITOR - BRUCE NESTOR

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,
and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the
persons or things to be seized." -- Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of
the United States

Johnson County recently removed a monument containing a plaque with the Ten
Commandments from the lawn of the Johnson County Courthouse. Perhaps in its
place should go a tombstone that represents the demise of the Fourth Amendment.

Recent newspaper coverage has focused on the controversial search conducted
by Iowa City police, later endorsed by Police Chief R.J. Winkelhake, where
consent to search a private home was allegedly obtained from an 11-year-old
boy. This incident is only one among many which illustrates the extent to
which the Fourth Amendment has been eroded by aggressive law-enforcement
practices and weak judicial oversight.

As a criminal defense attorney in private practice, I see only a small
slice of the search-and-seizure cases that occur each year in Iowa City,
but the cases I see show the sorry state of the Fourth Amendment in our
city. For example:

* Based solely on an anonymous tip, two officers in black uniforms knock on
an apartment door at 10:30 at night. A young woman, in pajamas, answers the
door. The police gain entry by claiming to need help with an "incident in
the neighborhood" and then intimidate her into a consent to search. Less
than one-sixteenth of an ounce of marijuana is found, and another person is
handcuffed, fingerprinted, disrobed, dressed in an orange suit, jailed, and
appears in court.

* Investigating an anonymous tip, police officers seize curbside garbage
and find paperwork belonging to the residents and "stems that appear to be
from the marijuana plant." Based on this information, a judge grants a
search warrant. Despite a federal court opinion from Ohio finding that
issuing such a warrant is tantamount "to subjecting to a full and probing
search the home of a cocktail party host, whose guests, perhaps unbeknownst
to him, indulge in illicit substances and discard the remainder," the
search warrant is upheld by a reviewing judge.

* Police officers observe a young man discard a cigarette butt on the
Pedestrian Mall and issue him a littering citation. Despite a ruling from
the U.S. Supreme Court prohibiting a search in such circumstances, the
officers proceed to conduct a public and humiliating search of the man's
person and backpack. No contraband is found. Later, at a public forum
sponsored by the Iowa City Police Citizens Review Board (the type of forum
the Board can no longer hold), a captain from the Iowa City police publicly
defends the search.

These incidents are not isolated anecdotes, occurring only in Iowa City.
They are typical of incidents across the nation, whereby judicial rulings
erode protections of the Fourth Amendment. Coupled with police practices
that push the envelope of what is constitutionally permissible we see that
citizens are not "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures."

Race, class, and age play a key role in public support for such police
practices and judicial rulings. People of color, lower-income people, and
the nation's young people are disproportionately the victims of such
constitutional violations -- whether it is Rudy Giuliani's New York police
frisking young men of color at random, New Jersey state troopers stopping
cars driven by black and brown people, or here in Iowa City with the police
focusing resources on arresting students.

In Iowa City, it is clear that the leadership of the police department, the
current City Council, and the judiciary will not stop the erosion of our
constitutional liberties. I therefore urge the voters of Iowa City to
strongly support the proposed reforms to the Home Rule Charter, which will
allow the citizens to have a voice in the selection of the police chief,
establish stronger civilian review of the police force, and curb the most
egregious current police practices. If the charter reforms pass, we could
erect a monument on the courthouse lawn celebrating the renewal of the
Fourth Amendment.

Bruce D. Nestor is an attorney in Iowa City and is the president of the
National Lawyers Guild, an organization founded in 1937 on the principle
that "human rights should be held more sacred than property interests."

Bruce Nestor
Iowa City resident