views

continued from page 8

The Probate Law Firm of
Thav, Ryke & Associates

www.michprobate.com

The Probate Law Firm of Thav, Ryke & Associates handles

against Olmstead, prosecutors used
voluminous transcribed conversa-
tions overheard by agents using
rudimentary techniques to splice
into Olmstead’s telephone wires
connecting to his house. The major-
ity of the court had no problem with
the evidence, but Justice Brandeis
dissented. He eloquently wrote:
“The makers of our Constitution
sought to protect Americans in
their beliefs, their thoughts, their
emotions and their sensations.
They conferred, as against the
government, the right to be let
alone — the most comprehensive
of rights and the right most valued
by civilized men. To protect that
right, every unjustifiable intru-
sion by the government upon the
privacy of the individual, what-
ever the means employed, must be
deemed a violation of the Fourth
Amendment.”
Four decades later, in Katz v.
United States, a 1967 landmark pri-
vacy decision, the court squarely
adopted what Brandeis said in

his Olmstead dissent, that the
Constitution fully protects an indi-
vidual’s reasonable expectation
of privacy. The government used
a secret listening and recording
device planted on the outside of a
telephone booth to listen to and
record Charles Katz’s gambling con-
versations.
Ultimately, however, the
Carpenter opinion is important
because it represents the funda-
mental principle that makes our
legal system work: that “we extend
these [constitutional] safeguards
to criminal defendants not because
we sympathize with what they have
done, but because in upholding
their rights, we protect our own,”
Hon. Damon Keith, Washington Post,
Nov. 10, 1977. •

Harold Gurewitz represented Timothy
Carpenter in the trial court and on appeal
in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth
Circuit in Cincinnati and in the U.S. Supreme
Court with Nathan Wessler, staff attorney with
the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology
Project.

continued from page 8

the administration of Estates, Trusts, Guardianships, and

Conservatorships, Life Insurance Disputes among many other

related legal matters. Our focus is mainly on Probate Litigation

and Administration. Going to court to make sure you receive

what your loved one has intended for you to receive. Tragically,

it is all too often that money is stolen from decedents, minors,

the elderly, and disabled people, and too frequently nothing is

done to put a stop to it. Innocent family members often don’t

realize until the person dies or becomes legally incapacitated

that their will has been changed, property has been deeded or

dissipated, or a bank account or life insurance policy has a new

unintended beneficiary. If you are in this situation, call us; the

consultation is free. We also do estate planning, wills, and trusts

so you can rest assured that if something does happen to you,

the right people will get their assets. So, if you have a simple

estate or trust that needs administration, or you find yourself in

the fight of your life, call the law firm that handles these issues

every single day.

24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034

1-800-728-3363

10

September 27 • 2018

jn

Candidates Need
To Explain
Changing Views

As a proud Zionist, I found the
recent statements, reported in
the JN and elsewhere, on BDS by
candidate Gretchen Whitmer and
the tweets from her running mate
Garlin Gilchrist on Israel and Hamas
very disturbing, as Hamas/BDS’ goal
is the destruction of Israel. (Sept. 13,
2018, page 17)
Whitmer refused to condemn the
BDS movement when asked at an
August town hall. According to the
Washington Free Beacon, she ducked
the question saying, “I recognize
the fundamental rights are that we
have the right to speak. No one gets
to infringe on those rights on my
watch.”
In an Aug. 31 press release, her
campaign told the Jewish News that
Whitmer co-sponsored legislation
while in the state senate against
BDS and that she is “100 percent
opposed to BDS.” Her intentionally
deflecting the earlier August ques-
tion, though, is telling; and her sud-
den change of heart questionable as
she clearly knew what BDS is about.
Gilchrist in 2009 tweeted several
anti-Israel comments. “I am suck
(sic) of politicians and Evangelicals
kissing Israel’s ass regardless

of what they do in the name of
‘defense.’” Followed by “Hamas is
a legitimately elected party that
only rose to power b/c of Israeli &
Western complicity /enablement”
and others.
Sociologist Dr. Morris Massey
pointed out that it is very dif-
ficult to change one’s perspective
without having a significant emo-
tional event. If Gilchrist’s views have
changed, to be credible, he needs
to explain what significant event(s)
changed his perspective. In a state-
ment last week, reported in the
Jewish News, he said, “… I definitely
believe Israel has a right to exist and
defend itself…” He did not provide
a cause for his changing views and
he did not disavow his tweets. What
does he think of Evangelical support
for Israel today? Was Hamas really
only in power due to Israel complic-
ity or maybe it was about the hateful
intolerant ideology of Hamas?
Pew Research reported in January
of this year that only 27 percent
of Democrats say they sympa-
thize more with Israel than the
Palestinians, compared with 79
percent of Republicans who favor
Israel. Unfortunately, bipartisan
support for Israel has significantly
diminished. Are Jewish Zionists
going to hold our politicians to
account?

Eugene Greenstein, Ph.D.
Farmington Hills