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"It does seem an enormous amount of authority to put into the hands of the police," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said. "We do have constitutional checks because we're not always sure that the police will exercise good judgment."
"If somebody jaywalks, the police could search them?" Justice John Paul Stevens asked.
"Correct," said Iowa Assistant Attorney General Bridget Chambers.
An Iowa man's lawyer argued that his rights were violated by a police search of his car that turned up marijuana.
Patrick Knowles was stopped for speeding on March 6, 1996, in Newton, Iowa. An officer gave him a speeding ticket and then searched Knowles and his car.
Knowles argued that the search violated the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches. Iowa courts allowed the marijuana to be used as evidence, and Knowles was convicted and sentenced to 90 days in jail.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule in the case by July.
The justices ruled in 1973 that police can search people upon arrest, citing a need to disarm suspects and preserve evidence.
Iowa law allows police to either make an arrest or issue a citation for any traffic violation. If they issue a citation, they can make an "otherwise lawful search."
The Iowa Supreme Court has interpreted the provision to allow police to conduct a search whenever they could have arrested someone, even if they decide instead to issue a citation.
Knowles' appeal to the Supreme Court said Iowa was the only state to authorize a search whenever a traffic citation is issued.
About 400,000 people are given traffic tickets each year in Iowa, said Knowles' lawyer, Paul Rosenberg. Police can invoke their authority to conduct searches only selectively because if everyone given a traffic ticket were searched, "the people wouldn't stand for it," he said.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist noted that police officers already have authority to conduct a search to protect their own safety.
Regarding a need to preserve evidence, the chief justice added, "When you have a traffic stop, you're not going to find any more evidence of speeding when you search a person's car."
Justice Antonin Scalia asked Chambers whether an officer could stop someone, arrest and search them, then drop the arrest.
Yes, she said. "Wow," Scalia responded.
Justice Anthony Kennedy noted the Supreme Court's 1973 decision allows police to conduct a "search incident to arrest."
"You want to turn it around and have an arrest incident to search," Kennedy said, adding, "It seems to me that would be an abuse of authority."
Chambers said that if police did commit abuses, the Iowa Legislature could act to curb the authority to search. She also said it was "far from routine" for police to search people after giving them a traffic ticket, partly because the Iowa policy was challenged in court.
The cable described for CIA headquarters a July 1981 drug delivery from Honduras to Miami, including the names of those involved, and called it "an initial trial run" by members of the Nicaraguan Revolutionary Democratic Alliance. An earlier cable had said the rebels felt they were "being forced to stoop to criminal activities in order to feed and clothe their cadre."
Although the cables were circulated to the departments of State, Justice, Treasury and Defense and all U.S. intelligence agencies, the CIA neither followed up nor attempted to corroborate the allegations, according to a report by the CIA's inspector general.
Nearly a decade after the end of the Nicaraguan war the CIA report discloses for the first time that the agency did little or nothing to respond to hundreds of drug allegations about contra officials, their contractors and individual supporters
In a few cases, the report says, officials instructed the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to hold back inquiring about charges involving alleged drug dealers connected with the Nicaraguan rebels. The report also shows that at times, wide suspicions or allegations of drug trafficking did not disqualify individuals from being recruited for the CIA effort.
Looking back, Frederick P. Hitz, the now-retired CIA inspector general who supervised the report, said, "We fell down on accountability. ... There was a great deal of sloppiness and poor guidance in those days out of Washington."
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Developing nations led by China blocked efforts to discuss "voluntary" quotas for poorer nations at the conference, the biggest since a landmark global warming agreement was reached last year.
The issue of how poorer nations participate in stopping global warming is one of the thorniest. Some nations balk at the idea of reducing greenhouse gases, saying the rise in emissions results from efforts to sustain basic human needs.
Spurred on by China, the 163 nations decided by consensus Monday to block the issue from even reaching the agenda as they kicked off their two-week conference.
Debate on other issues was continuing yesterday as the delegates sought to flesh out the 1997 treaty protocol agreed to in Kyoto, Japan.
"To say the least, we are disappointed that it appears that countries will not have an opportunity to explore this matter in any detail," U.S. negotiator Melinda Kimble told the delegates.
History was made last December in Kyoto when governments set 2012 as the deadline for cutting back on greenhouse gases in the United States, Japan, the 15-nation European Union and 21 other industrial nations.
Although the cuts currently apply only to those 38 nations, greenhouse emissions in India and China are expected by 2015 to exceed those of the biggest polluter, the United States.
Many scientists believe Earth is gradually warming because of five gases, chiefly carbon dioxide from power plant and automobile consumption. Critics say dire warming scenarios remain unproved and don't warrant potentially costly shifts away from fossil fuels.
The United States is not among the 38 signatories of the accord so far, and the Senate remains skeptical, absent greater efforts by the developing world.
Many developing countries argue their economies can't assume costly greenhouse gas reductions that quotas would require. They point out industrialized nations in the North loaded the atmosphere with carbon dioxide to begin with.
The Kyoto accord would require the European Union to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases 8 percent below 1990 levels, the United States by 7 percent and Japan by 6 percent.
"Kyoto was a significant but small step forward. Unfortunately, there has been no significant progress since," said Jennifer Morgan of the Washington-based World Wildlife Fund.
"Instead there is talk of loopholes ... in which the countries that emit the most pollution can wriggle out of the commitments they made in Kyoto."
Some environmentalists object to proposed trading schemes whereby the United States could emit more than its share by in effect buying quotas from countries that have surpassed their reduction targets.
With 1.5 million metric tons a year, the United States leads in carbon dioxide emission. Washington counters it is working to cut those emissions while also seeking to make the United States more energy-efficient.
"The work of Capt. Cousteau must not stop," said yachtsperson Sir Peter Blake. "We must build on it rather than diminish it because it will be for the benefit of the world," he told reporters at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
widow, Francine, said the recent Caspian expedition could help civilization "millions of years into the future."
The Caspian laps the shores of Iran and the former Soviet republics of Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and Turkmenistan.
Once the exclusive preserve of the Soviets and Iran, it is now threatened by overfishing - especially by gangs trafficking in caviar from Caspian Sea sturgeon. It is also being suffocated by nitrates, sulphur and fossil fuels due to its booming oil industry.
Blake said manmade barriers are preventing sturgeon from getting upstream to spawn, and that harmful fertilizers are flowing down Russia's Volga River into the sea.
"There's an urgent need for a cleanup," Blake said. "Other seas are bigger and accept rubbish put into them. But the Caspian cannot swallow as much, and that's where things start to go wrong."
The voyage by the Cousteau Society's 115-foot Alcyone was the first in 50 years in the Caspian for a foreign exploration ship, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which is supporting the Caspian mission.
Cousteau died in 1996 at age 87. Last year, the Cousteau Society chose Blake, 50, of New Zealand, to head the organization.
"I didn't know much before about the Caspian but what a fascinating journey and place!" Blake said yesterday.
He said that in Russia, Cousteau's TV series "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" is currently showing, meaning the crew was treated "like celebrities."
Mrs. Cousteau said the group hoped to build consensus between various governments around the ian on measures to counteract the environmental threats.
On a wider scale, she has launched a "Waterfor Peace" project, aimed at preventing wars between countries over access to water, by teaching countries about preservation.
The Caspian expedition has cost $750,000.
11-04-98
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