Highjacking the 4th Amendment?

Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.

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.

The 4th Amendment to the US Constitution was originally ratified (along with amendments 1 through 10) by only 11 States between 1789 and 1791. Three States, Massachusetts, Georgia and Connecticut didn't ratify the first 10 Amendments until 1939. A point of interest is that the States currently part of the United States of America have not been allowed to re-confirm or ratify the original 10 Amendments.

The current administration, perhaps the most secretive and invasive since the World War II years, appears to have high-jacked the 4th Amendment (or at least the intent of it).

The need for discovering potential threats against the United States and its citizens is apparent. The United States has long prided itself (at least publicly) for being a nation of laws. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, this administration entered in a covert arrangement with several public communications companies to supply the US Government with the personal phone and email records of American citizens and to monitor the conversations of an untold number of United States citizens. The government suggested that this was a legal invasion on the privacy expected by US citizens under the 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. The Executive Branch of our Government specifically excluded the Judicial Branch from making the determination on the legality of their actions. The communications companies (except for a few) ultimately yielded to the pressure from the United States Government and opened up records and provided the transmission of communications of United States WITHOUT any warrant or order approved by any court or judge of the Judicial Branch of our Government. The question of whether or not the communications companies have violated the privacy rights and agreements with their customers is still very much in question at this time.

The 1978 FISA law was deemed by this administration to be insufficient and the Bush people made the decision to disregard it as well as the tenets of the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution which is "supposed" to protect citizens from illegal "searching" into the lives of private citizens.

Has martial law been declared? Is it being imposed even without declaring it?

This administration has told the American public that the monitoring of the communications is "limited" to "suspected terrorist activity". The obvious first question is; WHO DETERMINES which phone calls or emails are SUSPECT? Are only communications where one of the parties is outside the United States being monitored? Are the interceptions of American citizen communications determined by a person's surname or the content of the communication? If the latter, it would seem that ALL communications from ALL US citizens would need to be monitored. In light of the FBI statement this week about the gathering of "private" information of United States citizens prior to 2006 (if you believe it actually stopped then) it has become increasingly difficult to accept anything our Government says about the limits of their invasion on the privacy of American citizens. How far has and will our government go to "protect" us? How paranoid should we be? Are all United States citizens subject to arrest and detainment for having any phone conversation or email exchange that discusses this subject or contains any discussion of the policies of our own Government or the terrorist threat around the world?

I suspect that at the heart the President Bush's determined effort to secure a retroactive amnesty for the communications companies that provided access to our phone calls and emails is twofold. First, I believe the court would determine that the existing law was in fact violated and that the President himself instigated the violations. Second, I believe President Bush and his administration wish to avoid, at all costs, a court ordered disclosure of just how many American citizens were subjected to communication monitoring and also how it was determined just who would be monitored. Of course, as with all the other "suspect" activities done by this administration, the communication monitoring activities will be placed under the heading of "National Security" which is always the catchall haven when "we the people" are being violated.

The main questions are; "How long will it take before the "freedoms", of speech, of protection against unreasonable search, and others simply become a memory in the minds of Americans that will recall a time when the Constitution and the Bill of Rights actually meant something?"

ARE the FIRST AMENDMENT and the rest of the sacred Amendments soon to dissolve into history as our Government continues to "protect" American citizens from the illusive enemies? OR, is the enemy to our liberty closer than we realize?

IT IS; "TIME TO THINK AGAIN"!!