Waco and Ruby Ridge were neither conspiracies nor flukes. They represent the worst-case scenario of problems that now plague federal law enforcement, including its militarisation, judicial rubberstamping of search and arrest applications, aggressive and violent arrest procedures, indifference to religious beliefs, the complicity of an overzealous media, and failed congressional investigations. In "No More Wacos", David B. Kopel and Paul H. Blackman use their expertise in law and criminology to outline the evidence in these cases and dozens of others to explain how and why such tragedies occur. Meticulously documented, this volume analyses all sides of this complex subject: flawed search warrants, authorities ignoring the difference between religious and criminal suspects, and intra-governmental deception, among other issues. Whenever problems are found, specific remedies are proposed - over one hundred solutions in all - both comprehensive and technical in nature. Each is offered in the hope of preventing future Wacos by properly placing federal law enforcement under the rule of law.
David B. Kopel is Research Director of the Independence Institute, a public policy research organization in Golden, Colorado, and is an Associate Policy Analyst with the Cato Institute, in Washington.
He is also an Adjunct Professor of Advanced Constitutional Law at Denver University, Sturm College of Law.
Kopel is one of several contributors to The Volokh Conspiracy, a group weblog of several legal academics. From time to time he writes for the Wall Street Journal and other periodicals.
He is the author of 13 books, and 67 scholarly articles published in journals such as the Michigan Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, SAIS Review, and the Brown Journal on World Affairs. His topics include constitutional law, international law, criminal justice, technology, antitrust, media issues, and environmental policy. He has contributed entries to nine academic encyclopedias, and served on the Board of Editors for one.
His research has been cited by eight state supreme courts, three federal circuit court of appeals decision, and 535 law review articles.
On March 18, 2008, he appeared before the United States Supreme Court as part of the team presenting the oral argument in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court's first major case on the Second Amendment since 1939. His Heller amicus brief for a law coalition of law enforcement organizations and district attorneys was cited four times in the Court's Heller opinions.
Kopel serves as a peer reviewer for Criminal Justice Policy Review, and for grant proposals for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Before joining the Independence Institute, he served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Colorado, dealing with enforcement of hazardous waste, Superfund, and other environmental laws. In 1998-99, he served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Michigan Law School, and earned a B.A. in History with Highest Honors from Brown University, where his thesis on Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., was awarded the National Geographic Society Prize.
Websites:
Independence Institute, independenceinstitute.org
Cato Institute: www.cato.org
Kopel: davekopel.org, kopel.tw (Chinese)
