Editorial By Peter Van Buren. The views expressed below are those of Mr. Peter Van Buren. Leave us your comments below.

Here’s a bit of history from another America: the Bill of Rights was designed to protect the people from their government. If the  First Amendment’s  right to speak out publicly was the people’s wall of security, then the Fourth Amendment’s right to privacy was its buttress.

It was once thought that the government should neither be able to stop citizens from speaking nor peer into their lives.

Think of that as the essence of the Constitutional era that ended when those towers came down on September 11, 2001.

Consider how privacy worked before 9/11 and how it works now in Post-Constitutional America.

The Fourth Amendment
A response to British King George’s excessive invasions of privacy in colonial America, the  Fourth Amendment  pulls no punches: “ 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. ”

In Post-Constitutional America, the government might as well have taken scissors to the original copy of the Constitution stored in the National Archives, then crumpled up the Fourth Amendment and tossed it in the garbage can.

The NSA revelations of Edward Snowden are, in that sense, not just a shock to the conscience but to the Fourth Amendment itself: our government spies on us.

Editorial By Peter Van Buren. The views expressed above are those of Mr. Peter Van Buren. Please click the link below and read his entire editorial. Leave us your comments below.