Plymouth State University students have rights? No way. Haha, of course I’m being sarcastic in the question, but a good friend of mine, Constitutional defense lawyer Mark Griffith, answered a short Q&A from me about the rights college students have:
Q: If college students either on a public campus (in dorms) or off-campus (apartments or houses) are suspected of drug or alcohol use/abuse, will police be required to get a search warrant before entering the home?
First, if this is off-campus, in an apartment or house, where the student is paying rent then he is the person with standing at that residence. There must certainly be a search warrant in order to enter to the home. You can expect the police to threaten and do what they do, but a warrant is necessary, period. With regards to dorms, the only way to answer that would be to look at the Student Handbook regarding searches. Schools wherein people are living on the school’s campus may be subject to different guidelines. My suggestion would be to get a Student Handbook including the rules regarding searches and let me review it.
Q2: If a cop smells marijuana or notices underage drinking from the road or sidewalk, is that permission to enter the premises, or will the cops still have to obtain a warrant?
It can be sufficient to enter without a warrant in some circumstances. It is the “Plain View” doctrine. If, without violating any 4th Amendment rights, the officer sees illegal activity in plain view under certain circumstances they can enter without a warrant. It is much like an officer pulling over a driver and seeing a bag of weed on the passenger seat. It was in plain view and he then has a right to confiscate and test the substance. Of course, all of this can be challenged later in Court.
Q3: If a college student is detained or arrested and read his Miranda rights, what is the most important thing one must do?
REMAIN SILENT, ASK FOR AN ATTORNEY, AND DON’T ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS. REPEAT THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND DO NOT BE PRESSURED INTO THINKING THAT THEY WILL “HELP” YOU IF YOU JUST COME CLEAN. THEY ARE NOT IN THE BUSINESS OF HELPING YOU.
The Leadership Institute is helping some conservatives at PSU launch a student paper for the fall. We need ideas! Each section of our paper needs to have its own name and its own theme or motto/slogan.
It’s going to be a Tabloid-style (think the Boston Herald, The Hippo, etc.) unless otherwise noted, but here’s what we have so far:
Front Page
InfoGuide (contacts for our Gov/town of Plymouth/Congressmen/PD/FD/etc)
Editorial (we’ll call this The Podium)
Sports/Activities (think of a cool name for this section!)
Entertainment (think of a cool name for this section, too!)
Puzzles/Comics (we need a cool name for this)
Classifieds Section (rental properties?)
Back Page (we need a cool name for this back section)
Special Note: We must stress clearly that this is independently run of any political party mainly because of the Leadership Institute’s non-profit status. So, while members of the PR staff can be Republican, this is not a “Republican” newspaper…
Dartmouth and Plymouth State share a county, Grafton, and us PSU students share the same philosophy - not necessarily talent - as these guys:
Tiffany Tai is the College Republicans chair of not only Dartmouth but the whole state of New Hampshire. Soon, Grafton County will be ours, ours dangit!
I’ll be moving into an apartment with a couple of other like-minded friends on Main Street, in the very building that houses the Pemi-Baker Valley GOP office.
There’s also another project in store coming to the Plymouth State University campus: the Dartmouth Review-inspired Plymouth Republic.
Our goal is to have the first issue of PSU’s first-ever conservative student publication out in time for classes to begin in the fall. If anyone is interested in helping put this project out, or to write or contribute, please drop us an e-mail: joeydauben@hotmail.com.
It’s time to Take Back Plymouth for the good guys!
Today I felt the need to reclaim my roots. During the near-decade of newspaper reporting/editing experience that I accumulated since my junior year of high school, only recently did I begin to focus on college. I entered a full semester in 2006 with six years of newspaper experience under my belt. Talk about a real-world education. I didn’t start out throwing paper routes. I covered high school football and local politics. I then became the news editor and launched one of the most conservative blogs in Texas (ranked No. 1 in a BlogNetNews.com poll.)
During my reporting career, I absorbed my brain with Ayn Rand, the Cato Institute Web site, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, the Financial Times, The Economist and other sources of free-market-friendly publications. I shelved the idea of college because Rich Dad, Poor Dad transformed me totally, as did the infamous A.L. Williams/Primerica business schools on Thursday nights.
I put off college for one main reason: money. I simply did not view a taxpayer-funded education was proper. I believe the federal Department of Education should be abolished, so why was I taking loans guaranteed by taxpayers? Federal tax dollars should not go to pay for me to get a degree.
So, with me set to head to Plymouth State University in several months, I’ve decided to set a plan to start paying off on the loans I do have now, and to fund my education at PSU 100 percent privately.
Grafton County, New Hampshire is losing money by the clock because of Sievers’ refusal to do her job that taxpayers elected her last fall to do. She has not shown up for work, she has not been a steward of our treasury, and we still don’t even know if she’s a legitimate lawful New Hampshire resident.
Vanessa Sievers should resign the treasurer’s position immediately and help save taxpayers the trouble of her irresponsible and reckless ways.
The New Hampshire Young Republicans invoked unit rule several weeks ago, and last night the decision was made public:
“The NH Young Republican Federation is proud to endorse a slate of officers for the upcoming elections of the Young Republican National Federation. Having voted to invoke unit rule, the eight members of the New Hampshire delegation will be unanimously supporting Audra Shay and Team Renewal in Indianapolis.
Audra is the best candidate to increase the ranks of Young Republicans all across the country. She understands what it takes to elect more Republicans at all levels and inspire the next generation of the Republican Party.”
Kerry Marsh, Chairman
Will Wrobleski, Vice Chairman
Mark Sanborn, Treasurer
Kurt Strandson, Secretary
Jen Wrobleski, National Republican Committeewoman
Robert Burns, National Republican Committeeman
Joey Dauben, Northern Regional Vice Chair
David Chesley, Southern Regional Vice Chair
No one is picking up on this it seems like…but word is that Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta has filed papers to run for United States Congress in the CD-1 race against Democrat Carol Shea-Porter, who is a lock-in to lose.
Now if New Hampshire would just get a solid candidate for governor…
The Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire threw me out of their discussion group yesterday (the infractions are below the jump), but it’s not that I’m purposefully against the libertarians - I usually consider myself fairly libertarian, especially in economic matters, but I warned a few Republican friends of this “purist” philosophy invading some quarters of the GOP.
Take for instance U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, a fairly conservative vote (mainly in the 70%-85% range, according to a few report cards) in the upper-chamber in D.C. Libertarians in the GOP can’t stand him. I think this is the wrong strategy.
There are votes that will be hard to explain (the $700 billion bailout during the last few weeks of the Bush administration, for example), but at 70 or 80 percent, that’s still a fairly accurate voting record on conservative issues.
The libs didn’t like that at all. There’s one thing I have come to love about GOP politics in the Granite State: the libs and the Free State people have made me feel comfortable just being a conservative liberty-loving Republican. I’m not into the horrific things that some of those guys believe in. The behavior under the guise of their “Non-Aggression Principle” is what I’m talking about specifically.
Here are the list of “infractions” that the libs/FSP folks that I committed:
The numbers (c/o Union-Leader) from the April 28 special election in the Salem/Windham district:
GOP
Marilinda Garcia - 2,050 (votes)
Dem
Sheila Murray - 1,250
Convincing win. I’m glad I got to play a small role in this campaign. It was a lot of fun. Now the really cool stuff: special elections in Lebanon and Concord.
Currently, the GOP has Randy Wagoner on the bill for the Good Guys. Details on Concord TBA.
The new officers for the NH Young Republicans. I spontaneously made the photo op a “press conference” type of look, hence a few laughing at me. It was a fun convention. I look forward to working with the party and our new officers. (photo by Karen Sautter)
Here’s a video of Marilinda Garcia, who faces a re-election challenge on Tuesday, April 28. She’s one of a handful of under-30 state House members in Concord:
