Supreme Court backs Secret Service arrest of man confronting Cheney

[Kelvin Mace]

51. Thomas deliberately ignored the fact

that the USSS detail with Cheney saw no action at the time of the "assault" which warranted an arrest. The decision to arrest was made ex post facto. There was no "snap decision" that the USSS had to make, erring on the side of caution due to Cheney's safety. They made the arrest in retaliation for the man expressing his opinion, and Thomas just legalized it by saying they can do that, as long as they invent some "probable cause".

Based on this criteria, it would have been permissible to come back and shoot the man, and justify the shooting by saying "Upon reflection, even though we saw no weapon, we thought he might have had one, so we went back and shot him. We have since determined this is not the case, so we will drop the charges. Please don't let his man sue us, we had to make a snap decision.

The Thomas Court says. "Cool!"