Posted on 05/20/2015 1:38:23 PM PDT by concernedcitizen76
The Fourth Amendment is getting attention that it's not gotten before, and by popular will, it will be defined in how it is interpreted and implemented. Unless conservatives participate and act to define it, it will be defined by liberals and/or libertarians.
From NSA spying to publicized abuses by armed federal agents and even some local police, people are afraid and are speaking out. That's good. The debate is leading to federal legislation and even constitutional amendments in states to rein in lawless government investigations.
The Fourth Amendment is one of the most important arrows in the quiver against bullying big government. It was created in response to attacks on business, religious freedom, and critics of government. It is quintessential American law over government.
Conservatives have a window to influence how the Fourth Amendment will be defined in ways that protect freedoms, yet maintain security, just as the Founders envisioned the purposes of government.
Liberals and libertarians are focusing on "privacy," which is fine, but privacy does not comprehend the full purposes of the Fourth Amendment. For example, they are ignoring administrative subpoenas (judge-less warrants issued by bureaucrats without probable cause), which have been the single biggest threat of big government bullying in the context of lawless investigations. Investigations force businesses and people to concede to lawless big-government interpretations by bureaucrats because the costs of litigation and perceived negative publicity discourage fighting them on principle.
Administrative subpoenas were created by the FDR regime and upheld by FDR judges in order to keep government’s thumb on free commerce. They violate the fundamental legal guarantee that only judges may issue warrants. The Founders experienced these judge-less warrants against merchants, critics of government, and proponents of religious liberty, and crafted the Fourth Amendment as a check on totalitarianism.
Especially with today’s attacks on religious freedom, but with all the attacks on free speech and free markets, unless we get rid of judge-less administrative subpoenas, the reforms over collecting phone records and computer data will have little effect on preventing the continued transformation of America into a more socialist, God-less country.
The Fourth Amendment may be defined from a conservative, originalist perspective, but only if people understand why we have this quintessentially American Bill of Right. Conservatives would do well to study and understand these principles so we can influence the current debate that will define the Fourth Amendment.
The 21st Century Fourth Amendment introduced in the Virginia legislature by Delegate Rich Anderson and Senator Richard Stuart reflects those bedrock principles.
The News Room at VirginiaFourthAmendment.com has articles explaining the Fourth Amendment from an originalist perspective, and they are worth studying.
Without the 2nd amendment all other amendments fall, starting with 1st.
You can start by ending the War on Drugs.
This, of course, excludes all Democratic politicians and a sizable majority of Republicans.
Yes, and contrary to the author’s silliness, allowing libertarians to define it would end up where he wants to go, anyway.
Quite true. The defense of liberty keeps liberty alive given the nature of government is to accrue power over the individual until stopped. But guns alone are not sufficient. One dicatatorship can replace another one by force. There must be a codified legal framework of liberty such as the Bill of Rights.
Obama loves the Patriot Act, a deadly assault on the Bill of Rights, despite railing against the act (like the liar that he is) during his 2008 campaign He twice signed an intact extension of this actrocity that guts the Fourth Amendment among others.
If patriots were to blame all constitutional problems on the ill-conceived 17th Amendment, the amendment that effectively repealed the whole Constitution imo, problems concerning the 4th Amendment in this case, then they’d probably be at least partially right most of the time.
The 17th Amendment needs to disappear, and a bunch of corrupt senators along with it.
Amendment10: I couldn’t agree more as my tag line suggests. If the 17th hadn’t been ratified (was it ratified properly?), the course of American history would have been significantly, in the ranked list nations adjudged to be most free economically and civilly, the USA would be in first place, not as now way down the list and falling in rank each year (into a third world cesspool).
ed. significantly altered. In the ranked list of nations...
Exactly. Libertarians are great on the Fourth Amendment. The author just threw out a smear and didn't bother back it up.
I once saw a business card that had the 4th Amendment on one side and a note to the PO PO on the other that said roughly.. The Citizen than provided this card to you is exercising his 1st and 5th Amendment Rights and asking if you are respecting his 4th Amendment Rights? Do you have Probable Cause or a Warrant? Then something about an Attorney.
It was a few years ago, If I ever find it I’m gonna have a bunch printed.
TT
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