And THIS is Why We Have "Legislation from the Bench"

When congress passes laws that are unconstitutional (see: Military Commissions Act and the newly passed FISA bill), it is the duty of the court to strike it down as unconstitutional.

I have to say... it is a damn shame that the last safeguard to protect the constitution, the courts, has to be used to often. It is a FACT that officially the 4th and 5th amendments of the bill of rights now cease to exist in this country.

Thanks to the Military Commissions Act, which states that prisoners may be detained without charges, tried without knowing their charges and convicted by a secret court, we no longer have the protection of due process in this country.

Thanks to the new FISA bill that has passed, we no longer have protections against unreasonable search and seizure as specified for in the 4th amendment. The FISA bill also has the added bonus of giving retroactive immunity (yes, this IS unprecedented) to the phone companies that have spied on YOU without a warrant for the past 8 years; simply because the sitting president asked them to. Not because they went to court and proved that you were probably breaking the law, but beacuse of your political ideals or what you do in your free time.

Mark my words, these abhorrations will be overturned in time, but the question is, how long are we going to allow our friends and countrymen to have their LIVES ruined by this bloated and overreaching government.

I want you to think about that for a second, the ramifications of having your life ruined. That means that everything you know is gone. You have no job, you can't see your family every day (if you can see them at all), and you have no future except sitting in a cell, and having the helpless situation of being tried for something that has not even been divulged to you, and the evidence (which you won't get to see either) was obtained through a secret wiretap that was never authorized by the courts.

We are a prison society. We have a higher incarceration rate than anywhere else in the world (see an earlier post for more details on that), and this is undoubtedly going to make it worse.

Things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. How many amendments of the bill of rights are we going to allow to be nullified before we stand up and say "that's enough"?

Status of the Bill of Rights

Amendment 1 -

Freedom of Speech (On life support)
Freedom of Religion (OK)
Freedom of Press (corrupt)
Freedom of Assembly (Curtailed)
Freedom to Petition the government (OK)

Amendment 2 - Right to Bear Arms (Alive and well*)

Amendment 3 - Quartering of Troops (Antiquated and irrelevant)

Amendment 4 - Protection Against Unreasonable Search and Seizure (Dead**)

Amendment 5 -

Protection from Double Jeopardy (OK)
Protection from Self Incrimination (Alive and Well***)
Assurance of Due Process (Dead)
Eminant Domain (Perverted and Abused by the corrupt US government)

Amendment 6 - Right to a Speedy and Public Trial (Dead)

Amendment 7 - Right to trial by jury in civil matters (OK)

Amendment 8 -

Protection Against Excessive Bail (Broken)
Protection Against Cruel and Unusual Punishment (Dead****)

Amendment 9 - Rights Retained By the People (Dead*****)

Amendment 10 - Rights Retained By the States (Dead - and has been for a long time)


* - Although there was a recent victory for the second amendment with the overturning of the DC handgun ban, I would argue that the intent of the 2nd amendment is to protect the populace from an overreaching government. Until the people have no restrictions on privately held weapnory (including nuclear weapons), this is an impossibility.

** - See FISA bill

*** - But Abused by the rich and powerful

**** - See: Military Commissions Act - The definition of torture is left to the discretion of the president

***** - While not formally null, the rights retained by the people is largely gone. Most Americans could not even tell you what the ninth amendment IS, and the ones that can, most likely don't know what it means. Basically, what it means is that whatever is not specifically prohibited by law, is therefore legal (see: abortion).


So that is my Bill of Rights overview. As you can see, our rights specifically granted to us are going away, one by one; And you can forget about the ones that are retained by the people.