At 08:44 PM 1/22/98 -0600, Jim Choate wrote:
Are police considered an extension of the judicial or the executive arm of the government? In theory, executive. (That way legislative writes laws, executive decides if they want to enforce them, judicial decides if they're legal or not.. ) In theory, of course.. [..] Then how, Constitutionaly speaking, do they have get the responsbility to search when it is clearly a judicial responsibility (that is where it is in the Constitution)
Going and doing stuff is an Executive Branch function; enforcing laws is an Executive Branch function. Issuing the warrant allowing the police to go search or arrest someone is a judicial function, and is generally done on request by the police or prosecutors. In the case of early-60s New York, of course, it simply wasn't bothered with. :-)
and in cases such as Evans -v- Gore the Supreme Court has found that the judicial body can't transfer or relinquish it's responsibilities even if it *wants* to? I'm not familiar with the case - got a pointer?
Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639