Jay-Z's 99 Problems: a Fourth Amendment Guide

J.D.

J.D.

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Finally, someone with advanced legal training has taken the time to painstakingly analyze the finer points of Jay-Z's 99 Problems from the perspective of the fourth amendment implications raised by the second verse. This is, of course, long overdue analysis.

http://slu.edu/Documents/law/Law%20Journal/Archives/LJ56-2_Mason_Article.pdf

I'm actually posting this because every week or so someone makes a thread about five-o asking "can I do this" or "can I do that". This is a pretty damned complete guide to the use of traffic stops to search for drugs in a car; what the officer can and can't do, and how to avoid letting them do those things. Basically, he's produced a guide for both sides of this kind of encounter.

"It turns out that, while some other law professors have noticed

99 Problems, no one has yet provided a detailed, accurate analysis of the Fourth Amendment issues Verse 2 raises. In this Essay, I remedy that deficiency in the literature."
 
but its pretty neat i guess. Theres no way Im reading the whole thing, but i would love to see if it gets taken seriously

and this is needed:

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I've only read 3 sentences, and I'm already pissed off by how many footnotes he has. I don't need proof that Jay-Z wrote 99 Problems.
 
What the line should

say is: “You’ll need some p.c. for that.”

best part of the entire paper; a lawyer revising Jay-Z's song.
 
well obviously, but how do you define certain actions?

for example, if it's the middle of spring, my windows are open, and I just mowed the lawn 2 hours earlier, my eyes are going to be red and itchy. as we know, other less than legal activities lead to blood shot eyes. is this considered probable cause to search my vehicle?

when it comes down to this distinction, it seems like simple semantics, which ironically isn't so simple.

maybe I'm just thinking too much.
 
I know exactly what you mean. Im 18 on a saturday night driving with a friend, "You are probably driving to a party and you could be transporting alcohol or drugs."

But at the same time, I was with my friend on a saturday night just driving to a friends house when he got pulled over. The cop came out and asked him if he knew why he got pulled over and all that jazz. He ran a stop sign at the top of an on ramp (It was temporarily there for construction), broke the speed limit of 45 in a construction zone, out of the construction zone he was "pushing 65 in a 55," and apparently he crossed over the "fog line" (white lines on the side of the road) twice. So he asked him when the last time he smoked marijuana was and he said he never has and then he did a test where he asked him to tilt his head back and close his eyes so he did. Then the cop asked him to step out of the car and did a sobriety test on him and he passed. Oh yeah and my friend had his shirt off this entire time which probably added to the cops suspicion. But i feel like the fact that he thought he was high could have given him enough suspicion to search the car for drugs considering there isnt a quick, efficient way to test that on the spot, but he didnt any way. Cop was real chill other then the whole sobriety test, he let us off with a warning even after 3 different traffic violations.
 
This is a quality post op thanks.Not only a badass song, but I want to read all this so I have a better understanding of my 4th amendment rights. Good to know, could save your ass some day,
 
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