> Don't even try to find consistency in 4th Amendment rulings-- the
law is
> such a mess it makes your eyes glaze over. I know. I happen to be
spending
> the day today studying criminal law in prep for the Bar Exam and
trying to
> study the 4th Amendment "rules" without breaking down in helpless
insane
> giggles is almost impossible.
>
> But let's pretend- the best way to explain this decision is on two
points.
> One, it involved search of the personal home itself- which gains far
more
> protection than cars, luggage or even one's person away from home.
> Secondly, it involved use of advanced technology UNKNOWN TO THE
FOUNDING
> FATHERS, which is the best way to explain Scalia and Thomas's
position,
> since while drug sniffing dogs could be contemplated in the past,
new
> technology should not be used to decrease privacy in ways the
founders could
> not contemplate.
>
> But don't hold them to it- you can find counter positions. Also
hard to
> explain why Stevens bolted to the authoritarian side on this one.
>
> -- Nathan
====================
Bodies of Law
Alan Hyde
ISBN: 0691012288 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: August 1997
Description from The Reader's Catalog Critical legal theory in action. Hyde looks at the body's existence as an ideologically constructed legal fiction. Analyzing a variety of legal texts, Hyde shows how the law defines the vagina as the most searchable body part, the penis as a mental agent, bone marrow as private preserve, and drug-tainted urine as public property
>From the Publisher
"Alan Hyde has produced a stunning critical anatomy of how the human
body figures (and is figured) in American legal discourse. Anyone who
wants to understand the myriad mechanisms by which law constructs and
regulates corporeality would do well to start with this book. Bodies
of Law will stand as a decisive intervention in the sudy of law and
contemporary 'body politics.'"--Kendall Thomas, Columbia Law School
The most basic assertions about our bodies--that they are ours and
distinguish us from each other, that they are private and have
boundaries, races, and genders--are all political theories,
constructed in legal texts for political purposes. So argues Alan Hyde
in this first account of the body in legal thought. Hyde demonstrates
that none of the constructions of the body in legal texts are
universal truths that rest solely on body experience. Drawing on an
array of fascinating case material, he shows that legal texts can
construct all kinds of bodies, including those that are not owned at
all, that are just like other bodies, that are public, open, and
accessible to others. Further, the language, images, and metaphors of
the body in legal texts can often convince us of positions to which we
would not assent as a matter of political theory.Through analysis of
legal texts, Hyde shows, for example, how law's words construct the
vagina as the most searchable body part; the penis as entirely under
mental control; the bone marrow that need not be shared with a
half-sibling who will die without it; and urine that must be
surrendered for drug testing in rituals of national purification. This
book will interest anyone concerned with cultural studies, gender
studies, ethnic studies, and political theory, or anyone who has heard
the phrase "body constructed in discourse" and wants to see, step by
step, exactly how this is done.
FROM THE BOOK
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction 3 Ch. 1 The Body as Machine: Hawkins v. McGee 19 Ch. 2 The Fatigued Body: On the Progressive History of the Body as Machine 34 Ch. 3 The Body as Property 48 Ch. 4 Constructing the Autonomous Legal Body: Privacy, Property, Inviolability 80 Ch. 5 Reproductive Capacity: Unsalable, Commodified, Compensable 97 Ch. 6 Sandwich Man; or, The Economic and Political History of Bodily Display 109 Ch. 7 Suppressing Bodily Display: Legal Breasts, Sunbathing, Dance, Photographic Images 131 Ch. 8 The Body's Narratives 151 Ch. 9 The Legal Vagina 165 Ch. 10 The Legal Penis 173 Ch. 11 Tranquilizing the Prisoner 187 Ch. 12 Body Wastes 205 Ch. 13 The Racial Body 222 Ch. 14 Diseased Bodies: Antibodies and Anti-Bodies 241 Ch. 15 Offensive Bodies 252
Conclusion: A Body Fantasia 258
Table of Cases 267
Index 269