I'm not telling you to read this post. But I'm not telling you not to either.

This wikilog article is a draft, it was not published yet.

by: Ryan • June 4, 2014 • no comments

In today's COA opinion, State v. Sines, the issue was whether the housekeeper who seized the child's underwear was a state agent for the purposes of Article I, section 9. That's probably all you need to know to appreciate this footnote:

Cleavenger's statements to [the housekeeper] to the effect that he could not tell her to take the underwear did not constitute discouragement. In defendant's view, those statements communicated that, although Cleavenger was prohibited from telling [housekeeper] to take the underwear, he would have done so if he had been able to. The state contends that, in light of the trial court's disposition of the motion, those statements may not be interpreted as implicit encouragement to take the underwear. However, regardless of whether the statements constituted encouragement, they did not constitute affirmative discouragement. Under any reasonable interpretation, saying "I can't tell you to take the underwear" is not the equivalent of saying "do not take the underwear."