White House considers Miranda changes

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is considering changes to the rules requiring police to inform suspects of their rights, potentially pursuing an expansion of the "public safety exception" that allows officers to delay issuing Miranda warnings, officials said Sunday.

Attorney General Eric Holder, in his first appearances on Sunday morning news shows, said the Justice Department is examining "whether or not we have the necessary flexibility" to deal with terrorist suspects such as the Pakistani-born U.S. citizen who is suspected of trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square last weekend.

"We're now dealing with international terrorism," Holder said on ABC's "This Week." "And if we are going to have a system that is capable of dealing in a public safety context with this new threat, I think we have to give serious consideration to at least modifying that public safety exception."

The announcement marked a potentially significant change, as the administration tries to manage the politics of national security after repeatedly coming under fire, mainly from conservatives, for being too willing to read Miranda rights to terrorism suspects. The administration is trying to thread a difficult needle: of taking a harder line on terrorism while also doing so within the confines of the criminal justice system.

Holder and other administration officials said they would be engaging Congress about putting together a proposal for changes to the Miranda rules, which require suspects to be told that they have the right to remain silent and that their statements may be used against them in court.

On Fox News, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) argued a change in Miranda was necessary. "If there's another 10, 15, 20 plots out there, that to me is more important to get all the intelligence we can on that," King said. He suggested setting up a "separate system of justice dealing with American citizens who are allied with a foreign army or a foreign enemy."

Under the public safety exception, statements obtained pre-Miranda may be used in court, including to charge suspects, if it is determined that police needed to obtain information quickly to prevent further crimes. Once an immediate threat is ruled out, the Miranda warning must be read, according to a 1966 decision by the United States Supreme Court.

The public safety exception dates to 1984, when the New York Police Department caught a man they believed was an armed rape suspect, only to discover that his loaded gun was missing from his holster. The Supreme Court ruled that it was legal for the police to question the suspect before reading him his rights because the loaded gun, which he had tossed in a grocery store as he fled, was a threat to public safety and it was imperative that it be found immediately.