Obama votes against 4th Amendment

[SamIam]

Your link seems to require a subscription to The Wall Street Journal to be read in its entirity. From what I can gather from Googling the subject, the right to privacy is a pretty controversial topic. Here's a quote from a site that seems to have quite a bit of information on the subject.

The U. S. Constitution contains no express right to privacy. The Bill of Rights, however, reflects the concern of James Madison and other framers for protecting specific aspects of privacy, such as the privacy of beliefs (1st Amendment), privacy of the home against demands that it be used to house soldiers (3rd Amendment), privacy of the person and possessions as against unreasonable searches (4th Amendment), and the 5th Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination, which provides protection for the privacy of personal information. In addition, the Ninth Amendment states that the "enumeration of certain rights" in the Bill of Rights "shall not be construed to deny or disparage other rights retained by the people." The meaning of the Ninth Amendment is elusive, but some persons (including Justice Goldberg in his Griswold concurrence) have interpreted the Ninth Amendment as justification for broadly reading the Bill of Rights to protect privacy in ways not specifically provided in the first eight amendments.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/proj...ofprivacy.html

[Radar]

Originally Posted by SamIam

Your link seems to require a subscription to The Wall Street Journal to be read in its entirity. From what I can gather from Googling the subject, the right to privacy is a pretty controversial topic. Here's a quote from a site that seems to have quite a bit of information on the subject.






http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/proj...ofprivacy.html

I am sure we're on the same page Sam, but I should point out for those who disagree that our rights don't come from the Constitution. There is no such thing as a "Constitutional right". We are born with our rights and the Constitution was written to protect them; not to define them or limit them. One does not need to define or limit our rights in order to protect them. Our right to privacy is a birthright. The federal government has zero authority to violate our rights and we have a right to not be searched unless there is adequate evidence to suggest we have committed a crime, and then only when a judge agrees and grants a warrant to search one particular thing...a house...a car...telephone conversations...email...etc.

Each requires a different warrant, and each requires a substantial amount of probable cause to gain such a warrant. All alcohol checkpoints, or other random searches such as flying over neighborhoods with thermal sensors to find those who may be growing marijuana are gross violations of the limitations on governmental power, and our civil rights.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by Radar

I am sure we're on the same page Sam, but I should point out for those who disagree that our rights don't come from the Constitution. There is no such thing as a "Constitutional right". We are born with our rights and the Constitution was written to protect them; not to define them or limit them. One does not need to define or limit our rights in order to protect them. Our right to privacy is a birthright. The federal government has zero authority to violate our rights and we have a right to not be searched unless there is adequate evidence to suggest we have committed a crime, and then only when a judge agrees and grants a warrant to search one particular thing...a house...a car...telephone conversations...email...etc.

This was true once upon a time before our federal government grew into a many headed hydra that grows two heads for each one that is cut off. I still have some small faith in government at the local level. I have found that a citizen can be heard at a town meeting level, and I've even had some success with state representatives, but anything higher, forget it. Now a days our every right must be engraved in steel somewhere, and, even then I suspect that we the people would continue to be tromped on.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Engraved in steel? With the price of scrap these days, it wouldn't last a week.