General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Right of Women to be Secure in Their Persons Against Unreasonable Searches
There has been a lot of talk about the fourth amendment the past few weeks with the 'revelation' that the NSA has been monitoring everyone's communications in the past, present and future of the world*. US officials are afraid that the leaker may defect to China. That's not really important in some quarters as the NSA has apparently breached the fourth amendment. From PolicyMic:
Despite being approved by a secret FISA court, the acquisition of private information from all Americans seems to be a quite obvious breach of the 4th Amendment's protections against unreasonable search and seizure, the same amendment the National Security Agency pushed the government to "rethink."
Here is the text of the Fourth amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Quite often when discussing this particular amendment, it's with regard to government invasion of privacy and the idea that a search warrant is needed by the court. There are exceptions to that. in fact -- many exceptions. As with all amendments, and the United States Constitution as a whole, the interpretation is never as simple as the written word. This is why we have a Judicial branch, headed by the Supreme Court as one of the three branches of our government.
It was that court, in 1973, that ruled one landmark case that forever changed the lives of women. It was called Roe. V. Wade:
Roe v. Wade was filed on behalf of a pregnant single woman, who challenged a Texas law that permitted abortion only to save the life of the mother. At the time of the court's decision, 30 states had laws similar to the Texas law.
The Court's ruling:
In a 7-2 vote, the Court said that the Texas law violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. Justice Harry Blackmun, writing for the majority, argued that a woman's decision to end her pregnancy is protected by a broad right of privacy, which though not explicitly laid out in the Constitution, previously had been found by the court to exist within the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and 14th Amendments, as well as the penumbras, or shadows, of the Bill of Rights.
However, the Court recognized that the state had a legitimate interest in protecting the health of the pregnant woman, and Justice Blackmun's decision laid out a framework in which varying degrees of state regulation was allowed based on the stage of the pregnancy. The decision held that the state could not prohibit abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy; in the second trimester, states could issue regulations "that are reasonably related to maternal health"; and in the final trimester, once the fetus is viable beyond the womb, the state could regulate or even prohibit abortion except in cases "where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother."
So basically what happened there is that privacy was protected under the Fourteenth Amendment's liberty clause. Ironically, it relied upon the amendments mentioned, in particular: The fourth. It protects a woman's right to privacy. Things aren't always as simple as just quoting one amendment.
Women have the right to privacy when making a decision that affects their personal liberty. Since abortion was not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, this right was able to be challenged (the 9th). We have a right not to incriminate ourselves (the fifth) when we choose to have this procedure and we have a right to express ourselves and not keep it secret (the first).
Eight years before Roe. v. Wade was decided, SCOTUS heard another case, Griswold V. Connecticut:
Estelle Griswold, the executive director of Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and Dr. C. Lee Buxton, doctor and professor at Yale Medical School, were arrested and found guilty as accessories to providing illegal contraception. They were fined $100 each. Griswold and Buxton appealed to the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, claiming that the law violated the U.S. Constitution. The Connecticut court upheld the conviction, and Griswold and Buxton appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reviewed the case in 1965.
"The Court continued, The Third Amendment in its prohibition against the quartering of soldiers in any house in time of peace without the consent of the owner is another facet of that privacy. The Fourth Amendment explicitly affirms the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures. The Fifth Amendment in its Self-Incrimination Clause enables the citizen to create a zone of privacy which government may not force him to surrender to his detriment. The Ninth Amendment provides: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
And yet, here we are, 40 years later, with stories like this. Here are the basic bullet points:
Mandates invasive ultrasounds, and forces women to pay for the cost of the extra procedure themselves.
Requires doctors to describe the ultrasound images to women seeking abortions, including details about the fetal heartbeat.
Extends the waiting period for abortion to 48 hours, and eliminates the option for women to bypass it because of a medical emergency.
Requires doctors to tell women scientifically disputed information about abortion risks.
Requires doctors to tell patients how much money they earn from each abortion procedure.
Punishes doctors who dont comply with the new restrictions with a felony charge and up to a $1 million dollar fine.
It's been well-documented here on this blog, but it is worth noting once again: women's health, our reproductive freedom, is under attack.
[img][/img]
Those attacking our rights, and by direct extension women, are disregarding and abusing the fourth amendment.
So can someone tell me why the NSA story is so much more important than my right to a medical procedure? Why is your right to have phone sex* (and not get caught) more important than my right to end an unwanted pregnancy? Why is this more important than Doctors' rights to practice medicine as they see fit and in accordance with the degree they received? NARAL Virginia, upon Governor Bob McDonnell signing Virginia UltraSound abortion law put out a statement calling the law "an unprecedented invasion of privacy and government intrusion into the doctors' offices and living rooms of Virginia women."
Caring about the right to privacy should be more than who is looking at your emails, it should include how government literally is legislating what they think should go into your *HooHaw*-- just because you don't have one, you certainly know someone who does.
Remember earlier I quoted an article from PolicyMic:
Despite being approved by a secret FISA court, the acquisition of private information from all Americans seems to be a quite obvious breach of the 4th Amendment's protections against unreasonable search and seizure, the same amendment the National Security Agency pushed the government to "rethink."
Here is another article from PolicyMic:
In Griswold, the Supreme Court concluded that while there was no explicit mention of privacy in the Constitution, the privacy rights implied in the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments demonstrated that the Founders intended a general right to privacy to be recognized and respected by the state. For example, the Court reasoned that the First Amendment protected the privacy of personal faith, the Fourth Amendment protected the privacy of ones person and belongings, and so on and so forth.
Using this inductive reasoning, the Court concluded that the right to privacy was found in the penumbras and emanations of the Constitution and that it protected a right to marital privacy that unquestionably made the decision to use or forego contraception as a private one.
So yes, let's keep debating. Today I ask why is my body and the rights of women so much less of a priority in this nation? Women are being attacked far more virulently in this nation than the NSA is going after Americans -- and that is still up for debate to be really honest. People upset about this NSA story are not having their words erased or taken away. Women are having their right to privacy taken away EVERY DAY through legislation. You'll have to pardon me for not placing the same amount of outrage on this NSA story that I have had over the loss of the rights women have gained to make their own personal choices.
Are we really supporting some previously anonymous person who may very well have State Secrets hiding in China and ignoring something that is directly affecting women everyday? Sometimes I think that we pick and choose the Constitution to fit our argument. I'm sure I'm not innocent in that accusation but it is worth saying that nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Personally I wish this much energy was spent on protecting ACTUAL and real civil rights violations in this nation. What happened to the right of women to be secure in their persons against unreasonable searches? Are people really more upset about META-data collection than government mandating that women are forced to have a trans-vaginal ultrasound with something that looks like this? [img][/img] [c]Would you consider this a reasonable search?[/c]
Maybe I should put a (NSA surveilled) smartphone in my vagina before I get a trans-vaginal untrasound. You think think that will get the attention of the so-called civil libertarians to the plight of the war on women?
I know, now you're saying: 'Raine, that's just crazy talk.' Yeah, I guess it is -- so is comparing what the NSA is doing to Nazi Germany.
[img][/img] [c]This image existed LONG before we EVER heard of Edward Snowden. Hell, it existed before BAH ever hired him.[/c]
:peace: and <3
Raine
*Use of hyperbole intended.
(ETA: I wrote this. here is my original post. )
duhneece
(4,226 posts)You created a perfect post. Thank you.
Raine1967
(11,600 posts)her is my base link.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)Hydra
(14,459 posts)Wth is wrong with people anyway? Keep your hands to yourself, your noses out of other people's vaginas and your cameras in your own homes.
RainDog
(28,784 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 14, 2013, 08:31 PM - Edit history (2)
the religious people in this nation who want to deny women full human rights are among the biggest scum bags in this nation.
they are, truly, sexist scumbags and it doesn't matter what side of the aisle someone is on.
they're too stupid to recognize the lies in their religious beliefs and too unconcerned about women's rights to understand that safe and legal abortions do not create more abortion - rather, it makes such procedures less dangerous.
one of the biggest scumbags I ever came across on this issue was MLK's niece.
she had two abortions herself and then she seeks to deny other women a choice in difficult and sometimes life threatening situations.
what a scumbag.
Coretta King supports Planned Parenthood.
Because she's not a stupid scumbag.
Raine1967
(11,600 posts)I personally don't care about her abortions (I didn't know that, btw) but to work to take away what so many women fought (and died) for is just appalling. I'll never understand such a self loathing mentality.
RainDog
(28,784 posts)The thing about her abortions is that she mentions them.
Let me correct the record, tho.
Alveda King states she had two abortions. She sought a third abortion but didn't get it because the father or her grandfather wouldn't pay for it.
She's also a liar.
She claims MLK was a Republican, when he was clearly, clearly to the left of the Democratic Party, if you listen to his later speeches. He also campaigned against Goldwater -- and the Republicans, since Goldwater, have been hostile to the Civil Rights Act.
Yet there she is, lying about Dr. King and using his name to get money to speak. And supporting the party that continues to piss on African-Americans' claim to equal protection under the law - in both its social conservative and libertarian wings.
She's also a bigot - and a stupid one, at that. She claims that god doesn't want civil rights for homosexuals but that god supported the civil rights movement - and claims the same can be justified in the bible.
Well, the bible supported slavery. How stupid do you have to be to ignore the FACT that the bible was used to justify slavery in this nation? That's why religion is a poor basis for any political judgment anyway, imo.
But, you know, every political family has embarrassments in them. She's the one in the King family.
RainDog
(28,784 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Leaving out the rights being taken away by the GOP and their Libertarian enablers in discussions here, as if we didn't exist, is guaranteeing second class citizenship or worse for half of Americans.
This is direct, in your face, not in the least hypothetical or shades of degree, fascist government oppression. That is an intensely invasive and personal thing being mandated, Republican Rape. It is a nightmare and is leading to the death of women. All I hear are crickets.
It's a statement that women don't really exist as human beings, just tools for amusement or reproduction. Our bodies no longer belong to us, they belong to the theocracy evolving from the ongoing evisceration of Democratic Party.
When I see people saying they will vote for Rand Paul, who attaches personhood riders to every budget bill, who votes to defund Planned Parenthood, is against food stamps, Head Start, aid to pregnant women and their children, the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public education, gay rights, gun control and wants a theocracy, yet those stances don't offend people anymore, I no longer feel I'm among friends.
Thanks for your very well done post. The picture you posted here is worth a thousand words, but no longer outrages the members of DU who are going to vote for Rand. Let's see if your OP sinks like a stone or not. I don't see much hyperbole when such invasion of bodily privacy are now the law in many states.
Raine1967
(11,600 posts)You are still among friends, and allies.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)See you later.
SamKnause
(13,740 posts)Well done.
K&R
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
Cha
(304,374 posts)Raine1967
(11,600 posts)I really believe it is time to start thinking about perspective. I truly do.
Women deserve more attention than they are getting, to be quite honest.
Bigmack
(8,020 posts)... with a pro-lifer.
Pissing away my valuable time.
Two men discussing a procedure neither of them will ever have!
I do NOT see or hear much from young women about saving their reproductive freedom.
Sorry... I just don't. I think most young women don't realize the tremendous fight(s) that occurred to get those freedoms, and they don't realize how fragile - and under attack - they are.
Most young women are too damn busy working and raising families and trying to make ends meet to get all up in the Repub fetus-worshipers faces.
But they better find time.