Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself

Criminal Justice

Right to Counsel – In 2005, the ACLU alerted the Idaho Supreme Court to a problem that certain indigent defendants who face the possibility of jail time are not appointed counsel. As a result, the court drafted and successfully advanced legislation, supported by the ACLU, requiring that counsel be appointed to indigent defendants facing the possibility of jail time. 

Due Process Rights – We successfully opposed 2004 legislation that would have expanded mandatory minimum drug sentences to include offenses committed near day care facilities, including those with six or fewer children. We argued that due process requires that a person be put on notice of what conduct is proscribed. Unlike primary or secondary schools, which are clearly designated as such, putting a defendant clearly on notice of their existence, many day care facilities are not obviously discernible as such, and it does not appear that existing state law requires day care facilities to post signs or other outside identification.  For example, the statutory definition of "family day care facility" under Section 39-1102 is: "A home, place, or facility providing day care for six or fewer children."   Since most family day care centers are unlikely to appear outwardly any different than any other single family dwelling, how would a defendant be put on notice of its existence for purposes of the fixed minimum sentence and non-expungement provisions of the bill?  How would this legislation deter a defendant from manufacturing, or delivering drugs close to a day care, when the defendant may not even know it exists?  Deterrence, to be effective, requires knowledge.   

Privacy Rights – We successfully opposed 2004 legislation that would have made it a misdemeanor offense for a person to refuse to submit to a search at an airport. We argued that a person who does not wish to be personally searched should have the option of not flying and be allowed to simply leave the airport.