Silent Theater

Lost in the shuffle of yesterday's news, the Supreme Court all but gutted your "right to remain silent" when arrested with a 5-4 decision stating that you must actively tell law enforcement officials you want to remain silent.

In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that if a suspect has been read and understands his or her Miranda rights, police can interrogate him or her indefinitely, unless the suspect tells them outright that he or she is not talking to them.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing a dissent, said the decision "turns Miranda upside down," referring to the procedure that requires police to inform suspects of their rights. At the University of Michigan Law School, criminal law expert Eve Brensike Primus said it "shifts the balance of power in the interrogation room."

Police, though, said they believe the court got it right: Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said law enforcement should be able to keep questioning a suspect who neither talks nor claims outright his or her right to remain silent. If the suspect wants to end the interview, he or she can say so. 

So understand now if you say nothing to the cops when you're arrested, they will keep interrogating you until you tell them you're not talking.  The right itself to remain silent is no longer assumed to be the baseline, but something the suspect now has to invoke. 

And the police state is given a little more power.