Jun. 21, 2003

Torture Tactics

Forum Column - By Erwin Chemerinsky - Constitutional rights have little meaning if they are not enforceable. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Chavez v. Martinez , 2003 WL 21210419 (U.S. May 19, 2003), significantly undermines the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, because it says that police generally cannot be sued for abusive, even torturous, questioning of a suspect.

Erwin Chemerinsky

Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law

Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).