- In all criminal cases, the accused is presumed innocent. Morrisette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 275 (1952). This means that a jury must not presume that person accused of violating the law did so. But just a few months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court in Kansas v. Glover, 140 S. Ct. 1183 (2020) ruled that police officers may reasonably infer that a person is violating the law and, on that basis, pull him over.
- This raises the question: Why is it OK to infer people violate the law sometimes, but not okay to presume people violate the law other times?
And concludes by suggesting:
- that the presumptions and inferences employed in our criminal justice system may turn just as much on public policy considerations as they do on logic. Thus, whether they are appropriate may turn in part on whether they result in the rules that we, as a society and as a matter of public policy, want the participants in our criminal justice system -- from law enforcement to lawyers to judges to jurors -- to follow.
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