WHO'S IN JAIL? HIGH COURT RULES STATES CAN KEEP IT A SECRET

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that states may withhold any and all
information about the people that police arrest. The ruling ostensibly
allows states to protect the privacy of those who are arrested, but it also
gives states the option of letting local police forces behave like a
dictatorship's secret police.

The case involves a California law that lets news media, private detectives
and professors have access to the names and addresses of arrestees, but not
companies that sell the information or use it for marketing purposes. That
law, which the court upheld, is too restrictive of public information, but
Chief Justice William Rehnquist's opinion says states may deny access to
any information in their possession and, furthermore, may keep all
information about arrests secret from everyone.

Texas has a law that restricts information about auto accidents. The law is
in limbo pending a state judge's ruling on its constitutionality, but the
U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the California case sadly comes down on the
side of restricted information.

In its broadest application, the court's ruling could weaken Americans'
crucial rights to equal protection and a fair trial. If the police can
arrest people without revealing that fact, the police can, in effect, cause
people to disappear without a trace.