Maurice Hinchey: “I wanted to address myself this evening to a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which came down around…”

“I wanted to address myself this evening to a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which came down around the end of last month, about 2 rac{1}{2} ext{ weeks ago. It is a decision by the Supreme Court, a five to four decision, another one of those narrow decisions that is decided by one of the nine justices, which I think has very deep and compelling implications for every American. Let me tell you what that decision entailed. It involved a case in the State of Texas. The situation was this: A woman, a young mother, was bringing two of her children home from soccer practice. She was driving a pickup truck. The two children were in the cab with her. She was driving through a community at 15 miles per hour. She was stopped by a police officer of that community, and she was stopped because the police officer observed that she was not wearing a seat belt. There was no other infraction. She was driving below the speed limit, she had not violated any other of the vehicle and traffic laws or anything else. She was simply stopped by the police officer because he observed that she was not wearing a seat belt. He stopped her, with her two children; and he placed her under arrest. He put her in handcuffs, arrested her, took her into custody, and was about to take the two children into custody when, fortunately, a neighbor came by and took custody of the two children and took them home. But the woman was arrested and taken off to jail in handcuffs.”