Random Boat Stops and the 4th Amendment

g 31.124 of the Texas Parks and Wildlifecode states, “an enforcement officer may stop and board a vessel . . . and may inspect the boat” to determine whether it is in compliance with the various provisions of the Code.

What this means for the average lake-goer is that an officer has the power to stop his or her boat without probable cause or a reasonable suspicion to believe that a crime has been or is about to be committed. Basically, a law enforcement officer may board any boat, for absolutely any reason and, once aboard, may legally come into contact with evidence of a possible crime, like boating while intoxicated.

The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas recently discussed whether or not this statute violates the 4th Amendment’s ban on illegal searches. The court held in Scheneklv.state that it does not.

It may be difficult to understand how a random stop, unsupported by probable cause, could be constitutional. The court, in making this determination, applied a two-prong test, weighing the State’s interest in the search against the individual’s right to personal security free from arbitrary interference by law enforcement.

The court held that the State has a strong interest in protecting its citizens and promoting water safety through random safety checks. The court decided that, in contrast, the level of intrusion to the individual during a random boat stop is minimal.

Thus, while it may seem counter-intuitive, the court held random safety checks of boats to be constitutional and not a violation of the 4th Amendment. This information is certainly important to keep in mind while spending time at the lake this spring and summer.

Attorney General of Egypt

The Egyptian State Lawsuits Authority is an Egyptian judicial institution that resembles, in respect of competencies, the United States Solicitor General.
The Egyptian State Lawsuits Authority had been established in 1874 prior to the establishment of the Egyptian national courts in 1883. The Authority represents the interests of the state in a variety of areas before national and international courts and arbitral tribunals. Under the applicable law, the Egyptian State Lawsuits Authority is granted the power to proceed to plead on behalf of the state even if the state itself does not like to do so and vice versa.
Organizationally, the Egyptian State Lawsuits Authority is divided into several departments, each of which is competent to represent the state before a specified kind of courts with respect to jurisdiction. All the departments are headed by their respective vice presidents, however, the president of the Authority shall preside the Department of Foreign Disputes.
The members of the Department of Foreign Disputes are in charge of representing the Arab Republic of Egypt before theInternational Court of Justice (ICJ), International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA), International Chamber of Commerce in Paris (ICC) and any other international arbitral or judicial panel for the settlement of International Disputes where Egypt is a party thereto. The current State SolicitorAsser Harb is primarily known for his eminent international legal practice within the Department of Foreign Disputes.
In General, the main mission of the Egyptian State Lawsuits Authority is to defend the public funds and interests of the Egyptian people.

Attorney general of Canada

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General are combined into one cabinet position in Canada. The Attorney General is the chief law officer of The Crown. The Minister of Justice is concerned with questions of policy and their relationship to the justice system.
The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness(previously titled Solicitor General) is a separate cabinet position and administers the police, prisons, and security agencies of the federal government.

Attorney General in Brazil

In Brazil l the Attorney-General is the head of the federal prosecution office, called "Ministério Público da União", an autonomous agency in charge of criminal prosecution, the defense of minorities' interests, the environment, and the protection of constitutional principles and rules. The Attorney-General heads a group of independent magistrates who work to investigate and prosecute criminal, labor and civil offenses committed against society and, specially, against racial, sexual, religious and political minorities or the environment.
Since 1993, the Attorney-General's Office is no longer in charge of the legal advising and representation of the Executive Branch before court, which has been ascribed to the Brazilian solicitor-general. In addition, the Minister of Justice, as a cabinet member, completes the Brazilian law enforcement structure by being in charge of the Federal Police Department, amongst other duties.
Federal police investigating activities are overseen by federal prosecutors at the Attorney-General's office.
Since Brazil is a Federation, every state has its local prosecution office, the State Attorney-General, with the same attributions, at a local level, of the federal office. A State prosecutor is called Promotor de Justiça.
Both federal and state prosecutors are public officials who start in their jobs only after passing the civil service exams.

Attorney General

Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the Attorney General or Attorney-General is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.

Usage
The term has traditionally been used to refer to any person who holds a general power of attorney to represent a principal in all matters. In the common law tradition, anyone who represents the state, especially in criminal prosecutions, is such an attorney. Although a government may designate some official as the permanent attorney general, anyone who comes to represent the state in the same way, even if only for a particular case, is an attorney general, and when that is a private individual, he may be distinguished from the permanent official as being a private or pro tempore attorney general. Although most nations primarily use full-time professional prosecutors in criminal cases, this is a fairly recent development, emerging in the latter half of the 19th century. Until the advent of public prosecutors (in the United States commonly called district attorneys at the district or county level), criminal prosecutions were conducted by private persons, usually lawyers, who would be appointed attorney general by receiving a bill of indictment from a grand jury. Today private criminal prosecutions are discouraged by judges, but the practice survives in the use of "special prosecutors" or "independent counsel" created by special legislation.
This usage can also be seen in the title "secretary general", for a secretary, or executive official, with general authority, normally the chief executive of a hierarchy of executive officials, or "surgeon general", for the chief surgeon of a team of surgeons.
Some people think the word "general" used in that way entitles the official to the honorific "general", but this is strictly only appropriate for military generals.1 The word "general" in "attorney general" is an adjective (unlike the military term). The plural of "attorney general" is "attorneys general".