Presenting the case of Mr. Dudley Hiibel a 59-year-old cowboy from Nevada who, according to the purple prose of the website, is trying to get an extremely important case put before the Supreme Court:

On the 22nd of March 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Dudley and the rest of us live in a free society, or in a country where we must show "the papers" whenever a cop demands them.

Reading "the facts", the account written by Mr. Hiibel's lawyers describing the incident, makes you believe this man really was done wrong. Fortunately, they let you watch the video to judge for yourself. You can also read the Nevada State Court Opinion, which provides a more even-handed account of what actually happened.

What I saw was not much different than what's shown nearly every week on COPS. A belligerent, unreasonable, excited, and potentially intoxicated man confronting a lone police officer and refusing to co-operate in any real way. The cop made what seemed to be some real errors, mainly not adequately separating Mr. Hiibel from his vehicle and not checking on the occupant of said vehicle. The cop also seemed to get hung up on a procedural issue (asking for ID) which allowed the incident to escalate. Had the officer simply asked, "are you Mr. Hiibel?" and then continued his investigation, I wonder if it would have all turned out differently.

That said, Mr. Hiibel was definitely acting erratically and did not co-operate. The officer therefore secured (handcuffed) him and placed him under arrest for that offense. Had Mr. Hiibel simply handed over his driver's license, I think it almost certainly would have ended differently.

The assisting officer would also appear to have made an error by not seeming to inform Mr. Hiibel's daughter that she should, essentially, calm down. Instead a really poor effort was made to restrain her, which predictably failed, resulting in another escalation that required Ms. Hiibel to be violently restrained.

The Hiibels were unreasonable and irritating, but cops are supposed to be trained to deal with unreasonable and irritating people all the time. Were Mr. Hiibel's constitutional rights violated in the process? Probably not, but the Supreme Court will ultimately decide that aspect. Certainly I don't expect us to devolve into a police state over what happened when one wobbly cowboy got pissed at his willful daughter.