4th Amendment: Rest in Peace

[proud2BlibKansan]

by Cindy Sheehan

4th Amendment
b. December 15, 1791
d. June 20, 2008


The 4th Amendment to the US constitution is just one more thing that has been murdered since bloody Emperor George took office in 2001: Over 4000 US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan; over one million Iraqis and Afghanis and many of our brothers and sisters in this country who have been either killed or devastated by catastrophic climate change and other violence that has become rampant.

Among the things that have been murdered in George's quest to be the emperor of a vast US corporate-military empire are many aspects of our constitution.

The First Amendment has been obliterated with "free speech" zones; the arrests of thousands of activists trying to express their freedom of speech; the destruction of the "freedom of the press" clause began during the Reagan years and it's untimely demise was hastened during the Clinton regime; the US technically has no state religion, but Christianity has been informally shoved down our throats with the Emperor getting revelations from his demented God that tells him to go on crusades against Muslim countries.

"Torture memos" written by law professors; torture camps; and extreme rendition slaughtered the 8th Amendment that prohibits "cruel and unusual" punishment. The Military Commission and Patriot Acts dealt the deathblows to the 8th Amendment.

When Congress gave Emperor George the power to invade sovereign countries without a declaration of war from Congress---the Emperor's loyal and obedient servants destroyed two clauses of the Constitution: the Supremacy Clause (Art. VI, Clause 2) which states the treaties are the "Supreme" law of the land and the enumerated power of Congress to "declare war" (Art. I, Section 8).

Art. II, Section 4 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to remove a criminal administration, but the Queen of the Imperial rubber stamp arm of the empire, Nancy Pelosi, took that clause "Off the table." When I hear that phrase, I envision a long table with lords and ladies pigging out on a banquet while the peasants starve because justice is not on that table and economic equality is out of the question.

Now, with the new law granting immunity to telecom companies and granting the federal government wide discretionary powers in spying on our communications (which has become far simpler in this electronic day and age), the Imperial rubber stamp arm of the federal government has brutally murdered another of our precious rights: the 4th Amendment which states: "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 centuries old right of habeas corpus which protected us from arbitrary state action through unlawful detention was also destroyed, so the US has returned to pre-Magna Carta "jurisprudence" and not one of us is safe from the arbitrary crimes of the police-empire that has replaced our representative republic.

Even thought the 4th Amendment was 217 years old, it died a violent and untimely death.

I am calling for a memorial service for the 4th Amendment on Tuesday, June 24th. We in San Francisco will be gathering at City Hall at 3pm and having a solemn funeral procession to the Federal building at 3:30 pm. We will then eulogize the 4th Amendment and give it a proper send off. It served us well. Many of our brothers and sisters have never felt its presence, though, even though they have been working for civil rights for generations.

Wear black. We are a nation in mourning for our rule of law.

If you can't join us in San Francisco, please organize a memorial service of your own.

[Trillo]

1. I was outraged back in the 1970s when our fine legislators

reportedly (according to a back page article I was reading in the daily newspaper) removed ownership of our DNA from us. That DNA is located within each of our bodys' cells, and to access it for any purpose requires dissolving a cell wall. That cell wall is much like a "locked door". The alleged purpose was to grant incentive to genetic research and the recently birthed biotechnology industry.

Reading that article made me so mad at the time I slammed my clenched fist on the kitchen table.

The 4th Amendment has been stepped on by Congress for many years now.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. So we should change the date of death

It's still not right.

[Trillo]

4. I don't believe the date is as critical as the recognition.

I agree with you.

[az chela]

3. Cindy sent this to me this morning and I think it is excellent

but so damn sad.This country is deteriorating at a very rapid rate

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. She is becoming a better writer all the time

:hi:

[ananda]

5. The death of the 4th Amendment..

.. is FAR more important than any other death
happening in the last few days or maybe ever.

My grief is deep and silent.. because my voice
has been silenced and I am completely
unrepresented by anyone in power except for
a handful crying in the wilderness.