"Charles L. Harness-Probable Cause" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harness Charles L)

felt pad in the center of the great table, and closed the door after they left.
"As you know," resumed the Chief Justice, "this is the safe. And you know what it is said to contain.
During Tyson's trial, the so-called clairvoyant, Dr. Drago, testified that he had placed a suitably
cushioned auto-developing camera inside, then locked the safe, and delivered it into the custody of the
trial court-- but without the combination. So far as the record goes, Drago is the only one who knows the
combination. If we grant certiorari, he will provide the combination. In fact, he is waiting in my outer
office at the moment. He refuses to give the combination to anyone but me. But back to the facts. At the
trial, New York put Drago on the stand to prove the existence of clairvoyance, and hence that the
warrant was validly issued. Drago testified that his clairvoyant power-- he called it 'psi'-- was erratic, that
it comes and goes, and could not always be called up at will. But he said he could prove it existed. He
then predicted, over petitioner's objection, that New York would convict Tyson, that we would grant
certiorari, and that the majority of us would reverse Tyson's conviction, holding that the warrant was not
issued upon probable cause. He further predicted that most of us would deny the existence of psi. His
proof to the contrary is supposed to be inside Exhibit Q, which we are invited to open after handing
down our predicted decision."
"What colossal impertinence!" roared Oliver Godwin. His white handlebar mustache trembled
indignantly.
"Mr. Godwin," said Justice Roland Burke coldly, "since the days of John Marshall it has been the
custom at these conferences that each of us will be heard in turn without interruption, starting with the
Chief Justice and proceeding down the line in order of seniority. I will ask you to await your turn."
The hard blue eyes of the Senior Associate Justice crackled. He said gravely, "Sorry, Roly.
Sometimes I forget you're no longer barely passing my course in torts, back at Harvard Law. Ah, what a
time you had with proximate cause, and those prolix, tautological so-called briefs. In fact, you still do.
You used nearly fifty words just to tell me to shut up."
The ample cheeks of Justice Burke turned pink. "I'd resent that, if you weren't a senile old man, who
should have retired long ago." He concluded primly, "You confuse tautology with logic."
Godwin grinned evilly. "Do I? 'Senile' is from senex, Latin for 'old man.' I'm an 'old-man old man.'" He
laughed. "Well, perhaps I am. But age is a relative thing, Roly. If you leave me out, the average age on
this court would be about sixty. And you're well over that. If it weren't for me, Roly, you'd be an old
man."
Pendleton's mouth twitched faintly. "If we can defer the actuarial comparisons for a moment, I think I
can finish. I don't want us to grant certiorari and then find we have to decide whether there is or is not
such a thing as psi. And I want to ignore Exhibit Q altogether. Its contents-- or at least the eventual
contents of the camera-- if any-- are not of record. Drago's insistence to the contrary, we can give it no
consideration. Certainly, we cannot open it. Another point: petitioner urges an analogy to wiretapping.
What has been done to him, if clairvoyance was in fact used, he calls 'clairtapping.' We have held that
evidence obtained by wiretapping or by any other unlawful means is inadmissible, in both federal and
state courts. Mapp v. Ohio, Berger v. New York. The contention is therefore made that 'clairtapping' is a
violation of privacy as bad as, if not worse than, wiretapping, and that evidence so obtained must be
similarly excluded. I think that there is merit in this contention. In summary, if the rifle was located by
clairvoyance, the search may well have been unconstitutional in analogy to wiretapping. If clairvoyance
does not exist, then there was no basis on which a valid warrant could have issued at all. Thus there is a
possibility that we could decide the case without deciding anything about psi." He paused and looked
down the table. "Mr. Godwin, I yield to you."
"Thank you, Shelley. It was about time. Several things bother me. Can we decide on the merits
without deciding about psi? It's rather like that Kidd will case in Arizona, back in the sixties, where the
testator gave all his money to anybody who could prove the existence of the soul. The judge had to
decide whether human beings have souls. Pity we didn't grant cert on that one. Always wondered
whether I'd get a soul out of a 5-4 decision. Sorry, brothers-- and sister. An old man likes to ramble. So
I'll just ask a question: why don't we just open that safe right now and see what's on the film? Might save