July 15, 2020

Can Your Speed Dial Be Used Against You In Court?

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I have a busy day ahead, so there probably won’t be much blogging today. Instead, I’ll leave you with something completely different and totally trivial.

Here in California we have a DUI attorney called No-Cuffs. If you get pulled over for drunk driving, give them a call! In fact, says a recent ad, you should put them on your speed dial.

Your speed dial! So here’s what I wonder. Suppose that some bright young assistant DA decides to subpoena your cell phone and sees that No-Cuffs is, in fact, on your speed dial. What impact would this have? Could a good lawyer use this as evidence that you intended to drive drunk? Or what? Do I have any criminal lawyers out there who can advise us whether it’s really a good idea to have a DUI attorney on speed dial?

See you tomorrow.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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