SUPREME COURT RULES IT'S OKAY FOR FEDERAL COPS TO STEAL

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

NY TIMES - Federal law enforcement officers are immune from lawsuits for
mishandling, losing or even stealing personal property that comes under
their control in the course of their official duties, the Supreme Court
ruled on Tuesday in a 5-to-4 decision. The case was brought by a federal
prison inmate, but the ruling was not limited to the prison context. It
was an interpretation of the Federal Tort Claims Act, which applies to
federal employees' liability for damages and generally waives immunity
from being sued.

The statute has numerous exceptions that preserve immunity in particular
situations, however. The exception at issue in the case provides that
"any officer of customs or excise or any other law enforcement officer"
will be immune from suit for "any claim arising in respect of the
assessment or collection of any tax or customs duty or the detention of
any goods, merchandise or other property."

The plaintiff, Abdus-Shahid M. S. Ali, was being transferred from a
federal prison in Atlanta to one in Inez, Ky., and left two duffle bags
of personal property to be shipped. When he received the bags, religious
articles, including two copies of the Koran, were missing. Valuing the
missing items at $177, Mr. Ali filed suit, appealing to the Supreme
Court after the federal appeals court in Atlanta had dismissed his case
in the decision that the justices affirmed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/washington/23scotus.html?_
r=3&ei=5090&en=961033a15e78d786&ex=1358744400&oref=slogin&partner
=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print


||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||