Drug Ruling

In your June 12 editorial, “Sensible Ruling in a Drug Case,” you praise the Supreme Court’s rejection of the legal rule that traffic stops of motorists by the police done for the ulterior motive to investigate crimes are unlawful, by stating that “for the justices to have ruled otherwise would have been surprising and wrong.”

About the only thing that is both “surprising and wrong” about the issue is your failure to grasp the practical impact of the court’s decision. From now on, police officers may use with impunity any of the literally thousands of ticky-tack traffic code violations on the books as a ruse to detain, investigate and search for criminal activity for which they have absolutely no probable cause to justify such action. The legal rule rejected by the Supreme Court would have simply invalidated a police detention when an officer would not have effectuated the detention but for the ulterior motive to investigate the motorist for the unrelated crime. Now that’s “sensible.”

ALEX RICCIARDULLI

Deputy Public Defender

Los Angeles County