When shopping for judge it's important to know what's available.

Why focus on the attorney's fees when this is important precedent in preserving what few civil rights we Americans now retain?

Are lawyers supposed to work for free? And if they lost, how much do you suppose the attorney would get? Without the ability to recoup reasonable fees - and the fees have to be reasonable and justified don't they? - ordinary citizens would not have the means to stand up and fight for their rights.

so what happens when you come back to the US from another country? Does customs need a warrant to inspect your laptop?

It's a little odd to read the Eugene police chief, Pete Kerns, saying that this is unsettled law, when the City of Portland figured it out way back in 1991:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2008/09/_by_aimee_green_after.html

It wasn't my impression that Jack was trying to say that the lawyers didn't earn the money or whatever. The point I took away was that the cop clearly violated this person's civil rights and as a consequence of that bad behavior, and his superior's refusal to own up to it by settling the case short of a trial, the City of Eugene now has to pay a very large sum of money.

Recording police officers in the act of duty is one of those areas where theory and practice can diverge. In theory, it's legal. In practice, you had better be careful.

Of course, with the ubiquity of video recording devices everywhere, we're getting to the point where the person recording the police will be backed up with several others recording both of them, as well as each other. As a practical consideration, that probably contributes more to good police behavior than the letter of the law.