Your Constitutional Rights
When people talk about "constitutional rights", what they're generally referring to is the Bill of Rights, the collection of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution that limit the power of the government and protect the legal rights of all United States citizens.
The Bill of Rights includes many of the popular phrases we have come to associate with the rights of American citizens and other democratic societies, including freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and the right to bear arms. The Bill of Rights also contains other rights that do not have the catchy titles of these five, including the freedom to petition, right to a trial by jury, the rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure, excessive bail, cruel and unusual punishment, and forced self-incrimination.
The First Amendment in particular, also called the Establishment Clause, contains many of the freedoms that have been the cornerstone for the American way of life since the country's inception:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Where Have Our Constitutional Rights Gone?
That citizens have to continually fight for the rights granted by the Bill of Rights is not a new phenomenon; throughout history, our country has struggled to live up to the all-inclusive language contained in the Constitution and its amendments regarding what freedoms Americans possess and, perhaps more importantly, who has these freedoms.
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One important example is the period of time in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement, which sought to establish equal rights and opportunities for African-Americans and other ethnic minorities. The outcome of the series of protests, marches and other unrest over civil rights was the Civil Rights Act of 1968, signed into legislation by Lyndon B. Johnson, which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing.
However, the fight to protect civil rights for all U.S. citizens continues to this day, as many recent news stories involve lawsuits, arrests or procedures that seem to fly in the face of the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights.
At Total Criminal Defense, we have compiled a list of recent news events that all seem to raise the question, "Where have our constitutional rights gone?"
Supreme Court Dismisses Unlawful Search and Seizure Case in San Diego
The ACLU filed a lawsuit in California against San Diego County for its welfare eligibility program, Project 100%, which it claims violates the 4th Amendment to the Constitution with unscheduled home searches to verify welfare information. However, the United States Supreme Court dismissed the case.
Firefighters Take on Role in Anti-Terrorism—Is that Constitutional?
Numerous news sources have published an Associated Press report that firefighters in New York City have received training from the Department of Homeland Security in anti-terrorism detection. The partnership was made because firefighters and medical personnel, unlike law enforcement officials, don't have to have warrants to enter homes. Other departments in major U.S. cities have also been part of this effort, including Washington, D.C., Phoenix and Atlanta. However, many are concerned that this is another example of the Bush Administration violating privacy rights in the name of defense.
Bush's Wiretapping Bill Violates 4th Amendment, ACLU Says
In another ACLU push, the group is calling for reform of a wiretapping bill that could make permanent the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that passed the Senate in August. That bill gives immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated by giving information on customer activity without the customers' knowledge to government intelligence agencies. The proposed bill would make the provisions of the FISA permanent, which many see as a violation of 4th Amendment protections against surveillance without court warrant.
Check back for future updates on constitutional rights and the fight by concerned American citizens to protect them!