By: Lauren Mckinnon
Did anyone else hear someone yell “STAMPEDE!!!”? Because I sure didn’t. And that is exactly what the government is doing; trampling all over that beautiful Bill of Rights our founding fathers left us. The Bill of Rights is likely the most abused piece of parchment in our country’s history. One by one, these rights have been marked with a big, red, “DENIED!” stamp. So after our previous lesson: The Bill of Rights for Dummies, let’s take a closer look and see which of these rights are still intact. Here’s a hint: It’s zero.
Amendment 1 Recap:
Freedom of religion and practices of. Freedom of speech. Freedom of the press. The right to peaceably assemble, and petition the government about grievances.
The most basic rights that we all enjoy as American citizens, right? Think again! In 2014, Twitter sued the government for restricting Twitter’s ability to notify users when the government requests data information from the company. Yes, you read that right Twitter wants to tell its users “Hey, the government is asking us for your info,” but Big Brother told them to shut it! They aren’t the only ones! In the wake of the Snowden revelations, Google wanted to release information about how many times the company received data requests to turn over that information to the NSA. This same applies to all social media, including dating sites, as well as email hosts. The Government is asking these companies for data (our personal information and interactions), and then telling them to be quiet about it. Sounds like by telling these PRIVATE companies that they cannot release this information is a direct violation of their first amendment rights to freedom of speech and press. This also plays into your fourth amendment rights, but I’ll get into that later. This does not even cover the infractions against our freedoms of religion or to peaceably assemble.
Amendment 2 Recap:
Muh Guns. Period.
Gun control. Need I say more? Citizens were given the RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS. That’s it. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Someone please explain to me how it is that the city of Chicago has some of the strictest gun control laws, yet has one of the highest rates of deaths by gun per capita in the country? No one is denying gun violence is a problem, but gun control is counterintuitive and hinders law abiding citizens from being able to defend themselves. By disarming citizens, and leaving criminals loaded, we are setting ourselves up to believe in the false concept that a police state is just for our protection, because Big Brother knows best. And our founding fathers knew that.
Amendment 3 Recap:
No soldiers can forcibly demand room and board without the consent of the homeowner during a time of peace.
Ever heard of a little town called Henderson, Nevada? Yeah, me neither. BUT, it happened there! On July 10, 2011, Officers demanded Anthony Mitchel to evacuate his home and allow the officers to use it as a command center and to gain a tactical advantage on a neighboring home they were surveilling. He refused saying that he did not want to get involved in a potentially dangerous situation (which by the way, is a completely reasonable response). But the officers would not take “no” for an answer. They forced their way into Mitchel’s home with a battering ram and aimed their guns at the unsuspecting Mitchel. He dropped to the floor, defenseless and unarmed, and they proceeded to pelt him with pepper spray. They even pepperballed the poor dog, who was cowering in the corner and posed no threat. Ya know, for good measure…
Amendment 4 Recap:
The government cannot search or seize your property without proper warrants and just cause.
Oh boy, where do I start… Well, remember what I said about the first amendment earlier? Think about it. The government sending data requests to our social media providers is a MASSIVE infringement of our fourth amendment rights. Where are the warrants? What have we done that would give them “just cause?” By the way, these “requests” are not requests at all. They are playing the semantics game. And we can thank people like Edward Snowden for blowing the whistle and leaking classified documents from the NSA that told us that we were being spied on by the government and that telecommunications companies were in on it! Time to don your aluminum hat, people! This is NOT a drill! Big Brother has been very busy. And very naughty!
Amendment 5 Recap:
The right to a Grand Jury, the right to remain silent, the right to not being tried twice for the same crime, the right to not be killed, jailed, or fined unless proven guilty in a court of law. The right to not have the government take your property without paying you appropriately for it.
The fifth amendment is backed by decades of precedent that clearly states that one can remain silent in order to “NOT INCRIMINATE ONESELF.” Well, the Supreme Court just threw a wrench in that with a recent ruling that silence can in fact imply, or even constitute guilt. Um… what? This flies in the face of civil liberties. Those Miranda Rights, stating we have the right remain silent and so on, that end with “you are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law,” will now have to be rewritten to say,“You have the right to remain silent but if you do, we can assume you are guilty.” I don’t think that’s what James Madison had in mind. At all.
Amendment 6 Recap:
The right to a speedy trial. The right to a jury of your peers. The right to a public trial. The right to see and hear witnesses against you. The right to an attorney.
I’m just going to say it. If the fifth amendment is out the window, what is the point of this one? I’m already presumed guilty if I stay quiet, so who cares how long they keep me locked up before a trial, am I right? But I digress. Meet Pfc. Manning. He was arrested in 2010 for leaking information to WikiLeaks about operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (There are those tricky first and fourth amendment rights we were talking about earlier.) By the time his trial was scheduled to take place in 2013, he would have spent nearly 1,000 days in confinement. Clearly, the government has a very different definition of “speedy” than most people. Keep in mind, this was a non-violent crime… Now are you getting it? Don’t tell Big Brother’s secrets!
Amendment 7 Recap:
You have the right to a jury trial in civil cases.
Let’s go back about 30 years to 1987. The United States v. Tull . The lawsuit claimed Tull was polluting, but the court of appeals denied his right to a jury trial. It begs the question: If the plaintiff had been a civilian and not Ye Ol’ Gubment itself, would Tull have been granted a jury trial? Now let’s jump forward to 2013. Dr. Morris Kinast is being tried in a civil suit to determine his liability in the suicide of a patient. Again, he is denied the right to a jury. There are countless civil cases in which citizens are denied their 7th Amendment rights. All you have to do is google it and you will find hundreds of these case files.
Amendment 8 Recap:
No excessive bail or fines. No cruel or unusual punishment.
Trigger warning! Two words: Death. Penalty. Need I say more? And in regards to excessive fines, let’s take a look at Hosep Krikor Bajakajian’s case in 1998. (Yeah, say that 5 times fast. Or just once, even). Bajakajian was traveling to Cypress with over $300,000 in cash on him. If a passenger is traveling with more than $10,000, he must declare it to customs, however, Bajakajian did not. This landed him in the hot seat and he was tried for the offense. The ruling against him stated that his fine was the full amount of the cash that he happened to be traveling with. Just to be clear, he was fined $357,144 for not declaring $357,144 of his own money to customs… sounds a bit excessive to me.
Amendment 9 Recap:
These are not the only rights citizens have. The Government has limited power.
It is hard to narrow down one specific case example because this is a very broad amendment. Meaning we have very broad rights. So anytime someone’s general civil liberties are violated, then the ninth amendment is violated. For states that still have crazy blues laws on the books like “only missionary position is permissible amongst married couples only” violates what some refer to as marital privacy rights.
Amendment 10 Recap:
Anything not covered in the constitution and specifically delegated to the federal government is a states’ issue or individual issue.
This one has been in the spotlight a good bit over the last few years with things like marriage equality, prayer in school, health insurance, and all sorts of other issues that the fed has stuck their nose in when it clearly should be a states’ rights issue. One of the biggest tug-of-wars between the fed and the state is happening in Arizona. The state has set laws and regulations for acquiring a driver’s license, including a ban on illegal immigrants obtaining one in 2012 to counteract the federal government’s edict that allowed illegals not only to stay but receive certain benefits. The fed responded with an injunction against the state to block the state’s law that banned issuing the licenses in the first place. Sounds to me like state sovereignty has seen better days.
You may be thinking that these are just individual instances, and it’s nothing to get all in a tizzy over, but the reality is, once is all it takes. Once a precedent is set, it is a slippery slope. As a single right is violated, the powers that be can then use that as ammunition to then step all over every, single one. And if you do not think your civil liberties and basic rights as a citizen and human being are in jeopardy, then you have been wearing blinders or you’ve drinking the Kool-Aid. It ain’t grape sweetheart, spit it out and look around you. For each case used as an example here, there are hundreds more like them, all you have to do is look. It is time to stand up and fight, end the fed, and take back our rights as citizens of this once great country. Liberty by Sunset, anyone?