This essay is Part 5 of our series from “Are Cops Constitutional?” by attorney and legal historian Roger Roots. By Roger Roots Elsewhere I described the limitation of common law grand jury powers by Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure as an unconstitutional infringement of the Fifth Amendment Grand Jury Clause.420 The fact that most criminal charges are now initiated not by crime victims but by armed state agents who serve the state’s interests represents a drastic alteration of Founding-era criminal procedure.421 The suppression of grand jurors’ lawful powers belies the intent of the Constitution that law … Continue reading Police control crime scenes, courts tilt toward state, system blights citizen protections