Miranda rights supreme court ruling

OFF THE WIRE
Miranda Rights Ruling: You'll Have to Speak Up if You Want to Stay Quiet
June 01, 2010 03:14 PM EDT
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The Supreme Court ruled today that in order to evoke your Miranda Rights, you have to say so. Keeping mum just won't cut it.
In a slim margin, the Supreme Court passed the ruling, must to the dismay of new Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said the ruling turned Americans' rights of protection from police abuse "upside down."
The right to remain silent, as well as the right to a lawyer, are among the first things that police say to people who are under arrest or under interrogation. Suspects must now speak up and say that they wish to remain silent, just as they have to speak up and say that they want to get a lawyer.
The ruling comes from a case where Van Chester Thompkins remained silent for over three hours while police continued to question him. Thompkins ended up implicating himself in a murder. Thompkins repealed his conviction, saying that he invoked his miranda rights by staying quiet.
"Thompkins did not say that he wanted to remain silent or that he did not want to talk to police," Justice Anthony Kennedy said. "Had he made either of these simple, unambiguous statements, he would have invoked his 'right to cut off questioning.' Here he did neither, so he did not invoke his right to remain silent."