"Brief of Amici Curiae David Sosa, David Sosa, David Sosa, David Sosa, & the Institute For Justice in Support of Petitioner David Sosa"

Malkovich? Malkovich. Malkovich.

Just wanted to highlight this Institute for Justice brief, which John Ross's Short Circuit  post noted today, and summarized: "IJ and several men named David Sosa are asking the Supreme Court to grant another David Sosa's cert petition after the en banc Eleventh Circuit said the Constitution allows police to detain anyone for three days as long as there's a warrant out for the arrest of anyone with the same name somewhere in the country."

Comments

[Martinned]

I approve of this idea, and it may well be up there with shutting down asset forfeiture and qualified immunity on the short list of things all VC commenters agree on.

[Drewski]

Of course you mean "civil asset forfeiture without a predicate criminal conviction," or we're very much not on the same page.

[MatthewSlyfield]

If the forfeiture is part of a criminal sentence post conviction, it isn't "civil" asset forfeiture .

[Michael P]

Martinned didn't include the "civil" qualifier.

[John F. Carr]

Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich? Malkovich Malkovich!

[Eugene Volokh]

Funny -- I thought of the same, and added the subtitle (though before I saw your comment).

[Michael P]

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

[Bored Lawyer]

Arrest warrant for John Smith. You'd have to build a few new jails.

[Toranth]

Fnu Lnu (and the rest of his Lnu family) is another famous wanted international criminals.

[Michael P]

Fortunately, you can tell Fnu Nmn Lnu apart from the rest of the clan.

[great Unknown]

great; have some magistrate judge issue a warrant for Hunter Biden, and let the fun begin.

[Archibald Tuttle]

That's brilliant. Also warrants in the names of SCOTUS justices.

[Bill Poser]

That names are not unique identifiers has been well known for hundreds of years. Perhaps it is time to take judicial notice.

[Kazinski]

Well of course the courts would notice, it's the cops that don't want to bother and the courts think that's probably the best they can expect from them.

[Bill Poser]

Cops are required to have a high school degree, and in many places, to have all or part of a college degree. You'd think they'd be capable of looking at additional identifiers. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to compare dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and so forth.

[remid0d0s0]

Sheriff's deputies are required to have finished fifth grade? That would have decimated the ranks in the redneck county where I grew up. Plus, the deputy who brought us moonshine might have been out of work.

State laws often require matching name, birthdate, SSN, or other multiple identifiers. Cops match whatever they want.

[The Margrave of Azilia]

At first I thought it was funny, all those identical names. Then I realized the context. I hope *everyone* here is for the rights of all the Sosas.

[gormadoc]

Only if they didn't use steroids.

[Michael P]

The brief is fun to read, but the facts are pretty galling. It took the Florida county three days to confirm that he was, in fact, not the same David Sosa wanted on a 26-year-old warrant from Texas. And they wrongly arrested the same David Sosa on the same warrant four years earlier. And he pointed out the earlier confusion in the second arrest. And he pointed out during both arrests that the warrant itself had identifying information (date of birth, height, weight, tattoo information) that did not match him.

The county and its sheriff's deputies should be on the hook for damages in this case.

[SRG]

I am Spartacus

[Krayt]

Police struggle (or are lazy and credophiles) to double-check AI recognition of criminal faces. I would have thought simple names would have long since demanded such process.

[not guilty]

A clever filing.

The doctrine of qualified immunity is an abomination, cut from judicial whole cloth. Since the judiciary is unwilling to limit its harsh effects, Congress should act to abolish it.

If police and other governmental officials are too lily-livered to do their jobs within the law, let them buy liability insurance.

[DewbieDewbieDoo]

Reminiscent of a story about one of the Garcia Bros when he was D.A. of Los Angeles county.

In the search for deadbeat dads, they'd file against anyone with the same name (no matter how wildly unlikely Mr. Same Name was to have been the father in question - one old guy was in his `80s).

And if Mr. Same Name didn't get the summons or didn't understand he needed to argue it within the set period (IIRC 30 days, but not positive) they were then by default the legal father and on the hook for child support payments.

Supposedly happened to hundreds of guys during Mr. Garcia's reign.

[taqmcg]

My quick search suggested that where were many hundreds of thousands of outstanding warrants in the system implicated in this case. If so, it suggests that a significant fraction of the US population is subject to arrest on the basis used here. Rather scary.

[remid0d0s0]

In the 1990s I failed a Brady check. Went to the police station to find out why. Lady behind the desk pulled out a 1/4" thick stack of fanfold poster and started reading off my one man East Coast crime spree. “Wasn't me,” I said. She seemed annoyed as they fingerprinted me. I saw the print guy in the back look at the card for less than 30 seconds, more like five, and suddenly I was all good.

I have a doppelganger who has the same name and birthday, off by one year.

Once caused me to be rejected for a driver license transfer from one state to another until I came up with a social security card.

Caused me to have a license suspended once when the cops matched only name and birthday.

I am always ready for the next time this crap happens but I always hope it goes well when it does.