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Dec. 15, 1791: Bill of Rights Goes Into Law |
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Friday, 14 December 2007 |
216 years ago, the Bill of Rights was ratified by the Virginia legislature and became part of the law of the land. The rights to free speech and gun ownership are constantly invoked in our political debate so I would like to call attention to some of the less appreciated rights signed into law on this day in 1791. If the document could be summed up in a few words, its purpose is to limit the federal government and give the citizens a framework for understanding the constitution. Fourth Amendment: 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.
I think this is simple and straightforward: No searches and seizures without a warrant that establishes probable cause - and the accuser must be under oath and therefor liable to perjury if found to be intentionally deceptive. Apparently Bush and Reid are not so convinced as they are currently working on a "Bi-partisan" effort to grant retro-active immunity to the telecommunications companies that have been illegally spying on U.S. citizens. The good news is that some Americans still take this right seriously, even if our elected civil servants don't. Ninth Amendment: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Just because we didn't list a right, doesn't mean you don't have it. Rights are not from the government - all rights are "natural" or "inalienable," meaning that they are a simple function of being a human with free will. This is where the concept of "human rights" devires from, but its also deeply rooted in a religious/spiritual sense of human value and dignity and being ultimately responsible to whatever higher power you answer to. The common theme in the early Enlightenment literature is there's something in existance that's bigger and more powerful than any government. Tenth Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states
respectively, or to the people.
Unfortunately, this one is almost meaningless today. Believe it or not, some people actually made a good argument for voting against the bill of rights: Why ban the government from activities like regulating speech or weapons if it was never given the power to do those things in the first place? The anti-federalists worried that a Bill of Rights like we have today would be an implication that the federal government was allowed to do anything it wasn't explicitly forbidden from. The 10th amendment is there to remind us that the three branches of government have detailed and literally defined functions - and if you want more than that, you need to go to the state or local level. Many people today will argue that the "General Welfare Clause" allows the government to do, well, anything. This wasn't the intention, because otherwise we could have ended the constitution right there. Article 1, Section 8 not only authorizes the congress to provide for the general welfare, but it also lists what the general welfare is in neat little bullet-points.
Today, let us look at our Bill of Rights with pride and civic responsibility. We must swear to ourselves and our neighbor that we will uphold every ideal in this contract, not just the ones that fit our personal agenda. If gun control is rampant, you will have free-speech "zones." As more weapons make the list, as more citizens are included, so will more forms and media of expression. So long as the federal government is allowed and encouraged to overstep its bounds as outlined in the 10th amendment in order to provide funding for education, or medicine, or whatever the emotional issue is today, then you can be sure that there will be a growing infrastructure to track your communications and other private information.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 April 2008 )
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