Dirt,

Shoving healthcare down the throats of people that don't want can be a dangerous game.

--Skip

Last year, the court heard the case of two Iowa prosecutors who were sued for framing two black teenagers for the murder of a security guard even though witnesses had pointed to a suspect who was white. In asking for the claim to be tossed out, the Iowa prosecutors asserted "there is no freestanding constitutional right not to be framed." A settlement was reached before the justices could issue a ruling.

Prosecutors in the New Orleans district attorney's office had intentionally hidden a blood test that would have unraveled the criminal case against Thompson. By a stroke of luck, a young investigator scouring the crime lab files found a microfiche copy of it. Thompson's blood type did not match. That single piece of evidence led eventually to Thompson being declared innocent of murder.

After he was freed, Thompson sued the office of now-retired Dist. Atty. Harry Connick, and a New Orleans jury awarded him $14 million. But oral arguments at the Supreme Court in the fall suggest he may not see a nickel of it. The high court has taken a dim view of suing prosecutors, and in Thompson's case, the court's conservatives led by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. questioned whether the district attorney's office should be held responsible for the misdeeds of a few prosecutors.

Defense lawyers say a series of high court rulings shielding prosecutors from damages, including one two years ago in a Los Angeles case, have created a situation in which abuse is tolerated and the falsely accused are more likely to go to prison, or worse. The justices have barred suits against individual prosecutors even when they lie about evidence in court. And increasingly, the high court has been shielding district attorney's offices from being sued for a pattern of wrongdoing by their prosecutors.

The police, like other public officials, can be sued if they knowingly violate a person's constitutional rights, the court has said. By contrast, prosecutors, like judges, were given a total immunity from suits even if they deliberately violated the law. Otherwise, "harassment from unfounded litigation" could deflect from doing their duty, the court said.

Thompson has attracted support from Paul D. Clement, U.S. solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief supported by former Justice Department officials.

"Prosecutorial immunity is the 600-pound gorilla in all these cases," said Clement in an interview. "Step back and ask yourself the question: Which of these people should know better? The prosecutor or the police officer?"

Yet under the high court's rules, the prosecutor who commits "intentional wrongdoing" is shielded, but not the police officer, he said.

Post that hot pic of Sarah again
I need a rise