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The phrase “you have the right to remain silent” is one of the most recognizable statements in American culture, immortalized in countless television shows and movies. Yet for all its fame, the right is profoundly misunderstood.
Knowing that this right exists is a starting point, but understanding its true meaning, its historical importance, and precisely how and when to use it is what provides genuine protection.
This guide serves as a practical resource about the right to remain silent, a cornerstone of the American justice system, designed to empower every citizen with the knowledge needed to navigate interactions with law enforcement and the legal system.
In This Article
The article explains the origins, scope, and practical meaning of the right to remain silent under the Fifth Amendment. It describes how the landmark Miranda v. Arizona ruling requires police to notify suspects in custody of their right to remain silent and to request an attorney before interrogation begins. The guide clarifies when that right applies, typically during custodial questioning, and how it must be clearly and explicitly invoked to protect against self-incrimination. It also explains that the right does not protect against confrontation with physical evidence like fingerprints or DNA.
So What?
Understanding this right is essential for anyone interacting with law enforcement. If you know when and how to invoke it properly, you help safeguard yourself against making unintended self-incriminating statements. The article shows that the protection is powerful, but only if used correctly. That knowledge puts individuals in a better position to protect their liberty and ensures law enforcement respects constitutional limits on interrogation.
The Constitutional Foundation
The right to remain silent isn’t a standalone rule but is rooted in one of the most important amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Its power and purpose can only be understood by examining its source and the fundamental principles it was designed to uphold.
The Fifth Amendment’s Self-Incrimination Clause
The legal foundation for the right to remain silent is found in a key provision of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. The specific text, known as the Self-Incrimination Clause, states: “No person…shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”
This language is the official source of what’s commonly referred to as “pleading the Fifth” or the right to remain silent. While the phrase “right to remain silent” doesn’t appear in the Constitution, it’s the universally accepted shorthand for this essential protection against compelled self-incrimination.
The Fifth Amendment’s Five Protections
To fully appreciate the Self-Incrimination Clause, it helps to see it in its broader context. The Fifth Amendment is a multifaceted shield designed to protect individuals from potential government overreach during legal proceedings. It contains five distinct constitutional rights:
- The Right to Indictment by a Grand Jury: For serious federal crimes, the government cannot proceed to trial without first obtaining an indictment from a grand jury.
- Protection Against Double Jeopardy: A person cannot be tried twice for the same offense by the same sovereign.
- Protection Against Self-Incrimination: The government cannot force an individual to provide testimony that could be used to convict them of a crime.
- The Right to Due Process of Law: The government cannot deprive a person of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” ensuring fair procedures are followed.
- Protection Against Taking of Private Property: The government cannot take private property for public use without providing “just compensation.”
Placing the right to silence among these other fundamental protections reveals its core purpose: to ensure fairness and limit the power of the state when it brings its immense resources to bear against an individual.
Why the Right Exists
The Self-Incrimination Clause is more than a mere procedural rule; it’s a foundational pillar that defines the relationship between the citizen and the state within the American justice system. Its importance stems from several key principles.
An Accusatorial System: The right establishes that the United States has an accusatorial system of justice, not an inquisitorial one. In an inquisitorial system, which has historical roots in some European legal traditions, the court or officials are actively involved in investigating the facts, and the accused can be compelled to answer questions and cooperate in the investigation.
The Fifth Amendment rejects this model. Instead, it creates an adversarial process where the government and the defendant are opposing parties. Under this system, the government must “shoulder the entire load” of proving guilt through its own independent investigation and evidence. The accused isn’t required to be an unwilling instrument in their own conviction.
Protecting Individual Dignity: The right protects individual dignity and autonomy from what the Supreme Court has termed the “overzealous enforcement of police authority.” It recognizes the profound power imbalance that exists when an individual is confronted by law enforcement officials. By allowing a person to remain silent, the Constitution provides a crucial check on the state’s power, preventing the government from using psychological or physical pressure to extract a confession.
Preventing False Confessions: The right serves as a vital safeguard against coerced and false confessions. History is replete with examples of individuals confessing to crimes they didn’t commit due to intimidation, exhaustion, or fear. The Supreme Court has long recognized that confessions obtained through coercion are inherently unreliable. The right to remain silent helps ensure that any statement a person makes is a product of free will, thereby enhancing the overall reliability and integrity of the evidence used in court.
Protecting the Innocent: Perhaps most importantly, the right exists to protect the innocent. The Supreme Court has noted that an innocent person “might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances” if forced to speak. Nervousness, confusion, or a poor memory could lead an innocent person to make statements that appear inconsistent or suspicious to police and juries. The right to remain silent allows that individual to avoid the risk of their own words being misunderstood or twisted into evidence of guilt.
Historical Origins
The right against self-incrimination, which feels so quintessentially American, wasn’t invented in a vacuum. It was forged in the crucible of centuries of political and religious persecution, representing a direct rejection of brutal legal practices that prioritized confessions above all else.
From Star Chamber to the Bill of Rights
The historical origins of the right can be traced to fierce resistance against the inquisitorial methods of English courts like the Court of Star Chamber and the High Commission in the 16th and 17th centuries. These bodies employed the oath ex officio, a legal tool that forced individuals to swear an oath to answer all questions truthfully before they were informed of the charges against them or even the identity of their accusers.
This practice effectively turned a person’s own conscience into a tool for their prosecution, a “cruel trilemma” of self-accusation, perjury (lying under oath), or contempt of court for refusing to answer.
Religious and political dissenters, particularly Puritans, famously refused to cooperate with these interrogations, viewing them as a violation of conscience and basic justice. Their struggle helped establish the common law principle of nemo tenetur seipsum accusare—”no man is bound to accuse himself.”
When the American colonists, many of whom had fled such persecution, framed the Bill of Rights, they enshrined this hard-won protection directly into the Fifth Amendment to prevent the new federal government from ever resorting to such tyrannical practices.
The Rise of Defense Lawyers
A crucial and often overlooked aspect of this history is the role of defense lawyers. For much of English and early American history, a criminal defendant’s primary safeguard wasn’t the right to remain silent, but rather the opportunity to speak. In a system where defendants were generally forbidden from having legal representation in felony cases, the trial was structured around the accused personally responding to the evidence and charges against them.
In this context, remaining silent would have been tantamount to admitting guilt; it wasn’t a viable defense strategy.
The right to remain silent as a practical and valuable protection only emerged in the late 18th century with the rise of the modern adversarial trial and the corresponding right to defense counsel. As lawyers began to represent defendants, the purpose of the trial fundamentally shifted.
It was no longer centered on hearing the accused’s personal story but on having a skilled advocate “test the prosecution case” through cross-examination and legal argument. This ability to “defend by proxy” is what made silence a workable option. A defendant could now remain silent because their lawyer could speak for them.
This deep historical link between the Fifth Amendment right to silence and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel helps explain why they’re so often paired together, most famously in the Miranda warning. One right is largely ineffective without the other.
America’s Hidden History
While the standard historical narrative focuses on English courts, it’s incomplete without acknowledging the brutal American legacy of coerced confessions. This is particularly true regarding enslaved persons, who were considered property and had no constitutional rights.
The legal system not only failed to protect them but was often the instrument of their oppression. Enslaved individuals were routinely subjected to extreme physical and psychological violence to extract confessions or information, a practice that was a key feature of the system of slavery.
This history, which has often been overlooked in constitutional jurisprudence, reframes the importance of the right against self-incrimination. It demonstrates that the fight against compelled testimony isn’t merely an abstract legal debate but a struggle rooted in the nation’s deepest injustices.
It underscores the right’s vital role in protecting the most vulnerable and powerless populations from systemic abuse, making it a fundamental tool for racial justice and the preservation of basic human dignity against an all-powerful state.
Miranda v. Arizona: The Watershed Moment
For most of American history, the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination was largely confined to formal legal settings like courtrooms and grand jury hearings. That all changed in 1966 with a landmark Supreme Court decision that brought the right out of the courthouse and into the police station interrogation room.
The Landmark 1966 Ruling
The case of Miranda v. Arizona consolidated four separate cases in which defendants had been interrogated by police while in custody and cut off from the outside world, ultimately providing confessions without being informed of their rights. The central question was whether statements obtained under these conditions could be used in court.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, ruled that they could not. The Court recognized that modern police interrogation wasn’t just a simple question-and-answer session. It was a psychologically coercive environment by its very nature.
As the Court stated, “the process of in-custody interrogation of persons suspected or accused of crime contains inherently compelling pressures which work to undermine the individual’s will to resist and to compel him to speak where he would otherwise do so freely.”
This inherent compulsion, the Court reasoned, effectively triggered the Fifth Amendment’s protection against being “compelled” to be a witness against oneself.
The Miranda decision was a radical and transformative moment in American criminal law. It extended the Fifth Amendment privilege beyond formal legal proceedings and applied it directly to the informal, police-dominated atmosphere of the interrogation room. To counteract the inherent pressures of this setting, the Court established a set of procedural safeguards that police must follow.
The Miranda Warning Explained
The Court devised a series of statements, now known as the Miranda warning or Miranda rights, that law enforcement must recite to a suspect before a custodial interrogation can begin. Each component of this warning is designed to inform individuals of their constitutional rights and the consequences of waiving them.
“You have the right to remain silent.” This is the core of the warning, directly informing the suspect of their Fifth Amendment privilege.
“Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” This statement ensures the suspect understands the serious consequences of choosing to speak. It makes clear that the interrogation isn’t a casual conversation and that their words can become evidence used to convict them.
“You have the right to an attorney.” This informs the suspect of their Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The Court included this because the presence of a lawyer is seen as a critical safeguard to “dispel the compulsion inherent in custodial surroundings” and ensure the suspect’s rights are protected throughout the interrogation.
“If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.” This ensures that the right to counsel isn’t a privilege reserved only for those who can afford it. It makes the right meaningful for all citizens, regardless of their financial status, based on the precedent set in Gideon v. Wainwright.
When Miranda Applies
One of the most significant sources of public confusion about Miranda is when police are actually required to give the warning. The duty to “Mirandize” isn’t triggered by an arrest alone. It’s only required when two specific conditions are met simultaneously: the suspect must be in custody and subject to interrogation.
Custody: Being “in custody” for Miranda purposes doesn’t necessarily mean being in handcuffs or sitting in a jail cell. The legal test is whether a “reasonable person in the suspect’s position would not have felt free to leave.” This is a flexible standard that depends on the totality of the circumstances, including the location of the questioning, the number of officers present, the tone of the interaction, and whether the person was told they were free to go. A routine traffic stop, for example, is generally not considered “custody.”
Interrogation: “Interrogation” includes more than just direct questioning. The Supreme Court has defined it as any words or actions on the part of the police that they “should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating response” from the suspect. This “functional equivalent” of a question is also considered interrogation and requires a Miranda warning.
Common Miranda Myths
The gap between the legal reality of Miranda and its portrayal in popular culture has created several persistent myths:
Myth: Police must read you your rights the moment they arrest you.
Fact: This is false. The duty to Mirandize is triggered only when police have a suspect in custody and they intend to interrogate that suspect. Police can arrest someone and transport them to the station without ever reading the warning, as long as they don’t question them about the crime.
Myth: If they don’t read me my rights, my case will be dismissed.
Fact: This is one of the most common misconceptions. A Miranda violation doesn’t invalidate an arrest or automatically lead to dismissal of charges. The legal remedy for a Miranda violation is the suppression of any statements the suspect made during the improper interrogation. This means prosecutors cannot use those statements as evidence of guilt in their main case. However, the case can still proceed if there’s other, independent evidence, such as physical evidence, witness testimony, or statements made before the violation.
Myth: Miranda created the right to remain silent.
Fact: The right to remain silent originates in the Fifth Amendment, which was ratified in 1791. The Miranda decision didn’t create the right; it created a set of prophylactic (preventive) procedural safeguards to protect that pre-existing constitutional right in the specific, coercive context of a custodial interrogation.
This distinction is crucial. It helps explain why a failure to give the warning is treated as a violation of a procedural rule, not a direct violation of the Constitution itself. This is why the remedy is suppression of the resulting statement—to remove the “fruit” of the procedural error—rather than the more drastic step of dismissing the entire case.
The Modern Trap: When Silence Can Hurt You
While the Miranda decision established strong protections for individuals during custodial interrogations, the legal landscape for interactions with police before an arrest is far more treacherous. A series of Supreme Court rulings has created a confusing and paradoxical situation where a citizen’s silence can, under certain circumstances, be used as evidence of their guilt.
You Must Speak to Be Silent
Contrary to popular understanding of a “right to remain silent,” the Supreme Court has established a counter-intuitive legal principle: in many situations, simply staying quiet isn’t enough to receive the Fifth Amendment’s protection. To be protected, an individual must affirmatively and unambiguously state that they’re invoking their right.
This means a person must speak up to claim their right to be silent, a paradoxical requirement that has significant consequences for the average citizen interacting with law enforcement.
The Salinas v. Texas Trap
This principle was cemented in the pivotal 2013 Supreme Court case Salinas v. Texas, which dramatically weakened the practical protection of the right to silence for anyone not in police custody.
The Facts: The case involved Genovevo Salinas, who voluntarily agreed to go to a police station for questioning about a double homicide. He wasn’t under arrest and was therefore not in “custody,” so police didn’t read him his Miranda rights. For about an hour, Salinas answered the officers’ questions. However, when an officer asked him if shotgun shells found at the murder scene would match a shotgun found at his home, Salinas didn’t answer. Instead, he tensed up, looked down, and remained silent.
The Ruling: Salinas was later charged with murder, and at his trial, the prosecutor argued that his silence in response to the question about the shotgun was evidence of his guilt. Salinas’s lawyer argued this violated his Fifth Amendment right. The Supreme Court disagreed.
In a fractured 5-4 decision, the Court held that because Salinas wasn’t in custody and hadn’t expressly invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege, prosecutors were constitutionally permitted to use his silence against him.
The Rationale: The plurality opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, reasoned that silence in such a situation is “insolubly ambiguous.” A person might remain silent because they’re relying on their constitutional right, but they could also be silent for other reasons. As the Court noted, he might have been “trying to think of a good lie, because he was embarrassed, or because he was protecting someone else.”
To remove this ambiguity and properly claim the privilege’s protection, the Court concluded, the individual must explicitly state that they’re doing so.
The Citizen’s Catch-22
The Salinas ruling creates a dangerous catch-22 for the average person. It effectively requires a citizen who isn’t under arrest, who hasn’t been informed that they have any rights, and who is likely in a stressful and intimidating situation, to have the specific legal knowledge and presence of mind to verbally invoke a constitutional privilege.
This decision penalizes members of the public who understandably, but now erroneously, believe that the “right to remain silent” is an automatic and unqualified protection.
This ruling creates a clear and consequential divide in how the Fifth Amendment is applied. There’s a robust set of protections after a person is in custody and has been given a Miranda warning. In that context, silence is generally protected.
But in the vast and murky territory of “voluntary” or “informal” pre-arrest questioning, the protections are far weaker and place the burden of knowledge squarely on the citizen. This creates a powerful strategic incentive for law enforcement to conduct as much questioning as possible in a non-custodial setting, before an arrest is made and the Miranda requirements kick in.
The critical implication for every American is that the moment you may most need to know your rights is often before you’re ever told you have them.
How to Protect Yourself: A Practical Guide
Navigating the complexities of the right to remain silent requires more than just knowing the right exists; it requires understanding how to use it effectively in different situations. The legal rules are highly context-dependent, and what works in one scenario may be insufficient in another.
How to Clearly Invoke Your Rights
Given the Supreme Court’s insistence on a clear and unambiguous invocation, the specific words you use matter. Vague or hesitant statements can be legally insufficient. For example, in Davis v. United States (1994), the Supreme Court ruled that a suspect’s statement, “Maybe I should talk to a lawyer,” was too ambiguous to be considered a formal invocation of the right to counsel.
To avoid this pitfall, your invocation should be direct and firm. The following examples provide clear, simple, and legally sound phrases that can be used to invoke your constitutional rights. Committing one or two of these to memory can provide critical protection during a stressful encounter.
Effective Phrases for Invoking Your Rights
| To Invoke Your Right to Remain Silent | To Invoke Your Right to an Attorney | A Combined, Powerful Statement |
|---|---|---|
| “I am exercising my right to remain silent.” | “I want to speak to an attorney.” | “I am exercising my right to remain silent and I want to speak to an attorney.” |
| “I invoke my Fifth Amendment right.” | “I will not answer questions without my lawyer present.” | “I invoke my Fifth Amendment right and request an attorney.” |
| “I choose to remain silent.” | “I need a lawyer before I answer any questions.” | “I choose to remain silent until I have spoken with my attorney.” |
Scenario-Based Guidance
The proper application of these rights changes depending on the context of the police encounter.
During a Voluntary Police Interview
This is the high-risk scenario from Salinas v. Texas. If you voluntarily go to a police station or agree to speak with officers in your home, you’re likely not in “custody,” and they don’t have to read you your Miranda rights. However, anything you say—and, critically, your silence in response to a specific question—can be used against you.
Your Rights: You have the right to not answer questions and the right to end the interview and leave at any time.
What to Do: If asked a question that you don’t want to answer because it might be incriminating, you must verbally invoke your right. A clear statement like, “I am exercising my right to remain silent,” is necessary to protect that silence from being used as evidence of guilt. You can also state, “I am not going to answer any more questions without a lawyer present,” and then end the interview.
During a Traffic Stop
A routine traffic stop is a form of seizure under the Fourth Amendment, but it’s generally not considered “custody” for Miranda purposes. Therefore, an officer doesn’t need to read you your rights before asking questions.
Your Obligations: You’re legally required to provide your driver’s license, vehicle registration, and proof of insurance upon request. In some states, you may also be required to provide your name.
Your Rights: You’re not obligated to answer questions about your travel plans (e.g., “Where are you coming from?” “Where are you going?”), whether you have consumed alcohol, or other potentially incriminating topics. Both drivers and passengers have the right to remain silent.
What to Do: You can politely and calmly state, “I am exercising my right to remain silent” or “I do not wish to answer any questions.” You also have the right to refuse to consent to a search of your vehicle by saying, “Officer, I do not consent to searches.”
When Questioned by Federal Agents
The same constitutional principles apply to federal law enforcement agents like FBI or ICE. They must provide Miranda warnings before a custodial interrogation. In non-custodial encounters, such as agents showing up at your home or workplace, the Salinas rule applies.
Your Rights: You have the right to refuse an interview, as these encounters are voluntary. You have the right to have an attorney present during any questioning.
What to Do: Don’t lie to federal agents, as that’s a separate federal crime. It’s better to refuse to answer. You can ask for their business cards and state, “I will not answer any questions without my attorney present. My attorney will contact you.” This clearly invokes your rights and ends the questioning.
As a Witness in Court
The Fifth Amendment privilege isn’t just for defendants; it can also be invoked by witnesses in any legal proceeding where their testimony might incriminate them in a future criminal case. This includes criminal trials, civil trials, grand jury proceedings, and congressional hearings.
Your Rights: A witness can “plead the Fifth” to specific questions that could provide a “link in the chain of evidence” for a potential prosecution. Unlike a defendant who chooses to testify (and generally waives the privilege for the entire trial), a witness can invoke the right on a question-by-question basis.
What to Do: The privilege must be claimed for each question where there’s a reasonable fear of incrimination. This right protects the innocent as well as the guilty; a witness who denies all wrongdoing can still invoke the privilege if their answers could place them in a legally perilous situation.
The Risks of Waiving Your Rights
After police provide the Miranda warning, they’ll ask if you understand your rights and if you’re willing to speak with them. Agreeing to speak at this point is known as a waiver of your rights, and it carries significant risks, particularly for the innocent.
Understanding a Valid Waiver
For a waiver to be valid, the government must prove that it was made “knowingly, intelligent, and voluntarily.”
Knowing and Intelligent: The suspect must have understood both the rights they were giving up and the consequences of doing so. This can be a major issue for individuals with cognitive impairments, mental illness, or who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Voluntary: The decision to speak must be a product of free and deliberate choice, not “intimidation, coercion, or deception.” While police are allowed to play on a suspect’s anxieties, they cannot magnify those fears to the point where a rational decision becomes impossible.
The Implied Waiver Problem
In the 2010 case Berghuis v. Thompkins, the Supreme Court made it easier for prosecutors to argue that a suspect has waived their rights. The Court ruled that a suspect who has been read their Miranda rights, states that they understand them, and then makes a voluntary statement to police has, through their actions, implicitly waived their right to remain silent.
Merely remaining silent for a period after hearing the warning isn’t sufficient to invoke the right; the suspect must explicitly state their desire to be silent or to have a lawyer. This ruling reinforces the critical need for a clear, unambiguous invocation.
The Innocent Person’s Trap
One of the most dangerous paradoxes of police interrogations is that the people who are most at risk may be the ones who believe they have nothing to fear. Striking psychological research has shown that innocent people are significantly more likely to waive their Miranda rights than guilty people.
This phenomenon, sometimes called the “innocent person’s fallacy,” stems from a naive belief in the power of their innocence to set them free.
Innocent individuals often think that by cooperating and answering questions, they can quickly clear up any misunderstanding. This is a perilous assumption. Under the stress of an interrogation, even truthful statements can be misconstrued, memories can become confused, and innocent explanations can sound like lies or evasions to skeptical officers.
An innocent person’s words can inadvertently provide details that are later used out of context to build a case based on “ambiguous circumstances.” The right to remain silent is therefore not a “legal technicality for criminals”; it’s a fundamental safeguard designed to protect all citizens, and especially the innocent, from the inherent risks of a flawed and powerful system.
You Can Change Your Mind
It’s crucial to understand that a waiver isn’t a permanent, irreversible decision. If you initially agree to speak with police, you can change your mind at any point during the interrogation. You can invoke your right to silence or your right to an attorney at any time, even after you’ve already answered some questions.
Once you clearly state, “I want to remain silent now,” or “I want a lawyer,” the interrogation must stop (or cease until an attorney is present). While any statements you made before invoking your rights can still be used against you, your decision to stop the questioning must be honored.
The Reality of Constitutional Rights
The right to remain silent stands as one of the most important protections in the American legal system, yet it’s also one of the most misunderstood. The gap between popular perception and legal reality creates real dangers for citizens who rely on television and movies for their understanding of constitutional rights.
The historical development of this right reveals it to be hard-won protection against government abuse, forged through centuries of struggle against tyrannical practices. From the Star Chamber to modern police interrogation rooms, the principle that no person should be forced to incriminate themselves represents a fundamental check on state power.
Yet the modern application of this right is far more complex than most people realize. The Supreme Court’s decisions in cases like Salinas v. Texas and Berghuis v. Thompkins have created a legal landscape where silence can sometimes be used as evidence of guilt, and where citizens must have specific legal knowledge to properly invoke their constitutional protections.
This creates a troubling paradox: the moments when you most need to know your rights are often the moments when you’re least likely to be informed of them. The Salinas decision particularly highlights this problem, placing the burden on citizens to know that they must speak to claim their right to silence in non-custodial situations.
For law enforcement, these rulings provide powerful tools and strategic advantages. Police can now conduct extensive questioning in non-custodial settings where Miranda warnings aren’t required, and they can use a suspect’s silence as evidence under certain circumstances. This shifts the balance of power significantly toward the government.
The psychological research showing that innocent people are more likely to waive their rights adds another troubling dimension. Those who most need the protection of the Fifth Amendment—the innocent who might be “ensnared by ambiguous circumstances”—are the least likely to use it effectively.
Understanding these realities is essential for any citizen. The right to remain silent remains a powerful protection, but only for those who know how to use it properly. Clear, unambiguous invocation is critical. Understanding when Miranda warnings are required—and when they’re not—can mean the difference between protected silence and evidence of guilt.
The Fifth Amendment’s protections aren’t self-executing. They require informed citizens who understand not just that they have rights, but how those rights actually work in practice. In a system where the rules can seem designed to favor those with legal training, knowledge truly becomes power.
This guide provides the foundation for that knowledge, but it cannot substitute for legal counsel when serious consequences are at stake. The most important lesson may be the simplest: when in doubt, invoke your rights clearly and ask for a lawyer. The Constitution provides these protections not as mere technicalities, but as essential safeguards for human dignity and individual liberty in the face of government power.
The right to remain silent, properly understood and properly used, remains one of the most powerful tools available to any American citizen. But like any tool, its effectiveness depends entirely on the skill and knowledge of the person wielding it.
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