Unconstitutional: Top 4 Ways the US Gov’t has Shredded the 4th Amendment

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/unconstitutional-shredded-amendment.html

Unconstitutional: Top 4 Ways the US Gov’t has Shredded the 4th Amendment
By Juan Cole | Jun. 27, 2014
By Peter Van Buren

Here’s a bit of history from another America: the Bill of Rights was designed to protect the people from their government. If the First Amendment’s right to speak out publicly was the people’s wall of security, then the Fourth Amendment’s right to privacy was its buttress. It was once thought that the government should neither be able to stop citizens from speaking nor peer into their lives. Think of that as the essence of the Constitutional era that ended when those towers came down on September 11, 2001. Consider how privacy worked before 9/11 and how it works now in Post-Constitutional America.

The Fourth Amendment

A response to British King George’s excessive invasions of privacy in colonial America, the Fourth Amendment pulls no punches: “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.”

In Post-Constitutional America, the government might as well have taken scissors to the original copy of the Constitution stored in the National Archives, then crumpled up the Fourth Amendment and tossed it in the garbage can. The NSA revelations of Edward Snowden are, in that sense, not just a shock to the conscience but to the Fourth Amendment itself: our government spies on us. All of us. Without suspicion. Without warrants. Without probable cause. Without restraint. This would qualify as “unreasonable” in our old constitutional world, but no more.

Here, then, are four ways that, in the name of American “security” and according to our government, the Fourth Amendment no longer really applies to our lives.

[Jefferson23]

1. Post-Constitutional America is a mess. K&R

[Wolf Frankula]

2. The Fourth Amendment Was Annuled When The Supreme Court Allowed The 'Good Faith Exception'

"I Broke the law, but I did it in 'good faith'.

Imagine that extended to other endeavors. "I robbed the bank in good faith, I thought bank robbery was legal." "I raped that eleven year old girl in good faith. I thought it was legal" And the courts saying not guilty.

"The constabulary, and all organs of law enforcement ought to be kept to a most scrupulous respect for the rights of the citizen. Where the constabulary are permitted to abuse the citizenry to put down crime, it will not be long before they do so for their own private profit."

Wolf

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, unhappycamper.