Conservative Donnybrook

After Tuesday’s Michigan primary, here is how CNN counts the delegates:

Romney 52
Huckabee 22
McCain 15
Thompson 6
Paul 2
Giuliani 1
Hunter 1

On Saturday, 55 more delegate go up for grabs; 31 in Nevada and 24 in South Carolina. Giuliani leads in the latest polls in Nevada, with Romney 5 points behind. But, Huckabee is leading in South Carolina; Romney trails by 8 points. If Romney were to win a majority of those, it would put every other campaign behind the eight ball going into Super Tuesday. Huckabee, in order to keep his campaign afloat needs to pull off a win in one of those states, with South Carolina being the most likely. McCain could be in trouble polling only at 11% in South Carolina and 7% in Nevada. Fred has been suddenly very vocal lately, realizing that he needs to warm up his voice in preparation of singing his swansong. He must win. And, it doesn’t look like he is going to. Stick forks in Paul and Hunter.

The interesting gambit is Giuliani who, like the hare of fable, has given the tortoises sizable head starts. He is banking on Florida to kick-off his so-far-slumbering campaign. If he wins Florida, this strategy may work, but he cannot afford a loss in Florida going into Super Tuesday. That would probably spell disaster as the voters could reconsider his viability if he has a poor showing. While it is not do-or-die time for Rudy, he is rapidly putting himself in that position. Will it pay off? That’s anyone’s guess right now. He is currently leading in Nevada, but trailing McCain by 2 points in Florida.

The ACLU filed a brief on behald of Senator Larry Craig (R-Id) with the Supreme Court of Minnesota which argues that people who have sex in public bathrooms have a reasonable expectation of privacy and therefore cannot be charged with any crime. Once again the ACLU has overstepped the bounds of reason.

I assume, although the brief itself does not address the Fourth Amendment, that the ACLU was referring to the reasonable expectation of privacy standard incorporated into the Fourth Amendment’s search and seizure. The argument would go as such. Because Senator Craig had a privacy interest in the public restroom stall, his arrest by an undercover police officer is in violation of the Fourth Amendment because the officer did not have a warrant and no exigent circumstances existed.

Once again the ACLU has manipulated Fourth Amendment law to read as they would have it read. In order to have a reasonable expectation of privacy and thus have standing to sue under the Fourth Amendment the individual must either 1) own or have right to possession of place searched 2) the place searched was in fact his home or 3) he was an overnight guest of the owner whose home was searched. Case law goes even further noting that when one drives his car on public roads that individual does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Therefore, it would logically follow that one who uses a public toilet has no reasonable expectation of privacy, except for the limited purpose the toilet was provided for. It would be the same as saying that since I have a reasonable expectation of privacy in public gym lockerroom I can have sex there.