Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
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.
As long as the justice system ignores law enforcement’s invasive warrantless searches, intimidation, harassment, or threats, citizens are not protected, and no one is safe.
In order for Americans’ Fourth Amendment right to be protected and the justice system to be truly fair, law enforcement must cease warrantless searches of citizens’ private property.
Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Kentucky v. King that law enforcement have the authority to stage a search and seizure of Americans’ property without obtaining a warrant from a judge.
In this case, police violated the Fourth Amendment when officers invaded the wrong home during a search for a suspect. After busting through the wrong door, police found illegal drugs in the home, which they discovered by error, and without first obtaining a search warrant from a judge.
Obviously, the apartment they invaded was that of a person conducting a criminal act, but this ruling has repercussions that adversely affect all Americans, including law-abiding citizens, like you.
The Supreme Court’s decision now gives police the authority to enter your home without obtaining a search warrant, in expanded circumstances…but the police do have to knock, first, before they break down your door.
This single decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court has effectively stripped every citizen of their Fourth Amendment protections!
Likewise, in Indiana, the State Supreme Court ruled in Barnes v. State of Indiana that police can enter a resident’s private property at any time – without a warrant, without suspicion, without reason – and without knocking and announcing their presence!
This ruling prompted an Indiana resident to ask his fellow readers of the IndyStar this question: “When was the Fourth Amendment repealed, and why don’t I hear an outcry from my fellow citizens?”
“The common law right to resist a police officer illegally entering a home no longer exists,” said Justice Steven David about the Court’s inane ruling.
We cannot continue to allow the majority of our elected representatives to look the other way while the government tramples on our Fourth Amendment protections. The government’s encroachment of our rights will continue as long as we fail to act!
Along with thousands of your fellow Americans, you can DEMAND that members of Congress circumvent the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision by voting for a law that will reclaim and secure our Fourth Amendment protections!
The Supreme Court’s decision has opened the door to allow a nation-wide abuse of power, and there is nothing that we can do – ONLY CONGRESS CAN TAKE ACTION!
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety,” – Benjamin Franklin
Americans must stand up and demand that Congress protect the Fourth Amendment.
The dismantling of your Fourth Amendment rights:
- GPS tracking: Right now, police have the ability to tap into your cell phone, smart phone, laptop and navigation device to track your every move, and they can do this without obtaining a warrant.The Obama administration is urging the Supreme Court to allow warrantless GPS tracking. Last year, the Justice Department argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in their– or at least their cell phones’ — whereabouts.
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS): The DHS recently released a series of terrorist-watch videos “See Something, Say Something” that effectively tell Americans to spy on each other. These video clips depict Americans as terror threats, and then advise citizens to report the behaviors of their fellow citizens.
- Transportation and Security Administration (TSA): Agents in Florida forced a 95-year-old leukemia patient to remove her Depends adult diaper, because TSA agents said it was impeding them from conducting a thorough body search. Likewise, 6-year-old children have also been searched and asked to remove their T-shirts in the TSA screening lines in front of airline passengers.
- Jose Guereña: This young Marine and Iraq War veteran was killed by a SWAT team that invaded his home and fired 71 bullets — 22 penetrating Guereña’s body — all because his brother, who did not live with him, was suspected of drug trafficking. Jose Guereña had a clean record, and police never found anything suspicious in his home. Now, his young wife is left to raise their child as a single parent.
- Earnest Vassell: On Sept. 1, Miami police shot and killed Vassell, 57, because he was carrying a toy gun. They didn’t take the time to discern the fact that he was autistic, and only carrying a toy.
- Kelly Thomas: A 37-year-old homeless California resident, who was described by Fullerton residents as “gentile” and “polite,” was tasered and beaten to death by police.According to the Daily Mail, eyewitnesses said that: “Thomas was unable to put up any resistance and was lying on the ground on his front when the attack took place. His screams and cries for his father were heard amid the tasering noises.
Six officers’ tasered him five times and beat him beyond recognition. Mark Turgeon, who was at the scene, said: ‘They kept beating him and tasering him. I could hear zapping, and he wasn’t even moving. … he wasn’t resisting.’
Speaking about his son’s death, Thomas’s father, Ron Thomas, a former sheriff’s deputy, said: ‘His death was gang-involved, the way I see it. A gang of rogue officers who brutally beat my son to death.The only thing we have left of our son is the blood in the gutter, that’s all we have left.'”
Remember … the Fourth Amendment was written to protect us from police excess and police mistakes. The warrant requirement ranks among the fundamental distinctions between our form of government – where officers are under the law – and the police state, where they are the law.
Governing authorities should abide by the Constitution, and avoid any attempt to encroach on Americans’ rights and freedoms.
“Most Americans would agree that requiring third-party judicial oversight is what protects all of us from living in a police state, where those doing the arresting are answerable only to themselves,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said.
Americans are in a battle whether they know it or not. And if we continue to sit on the sidelines and allow our rights to be taken from us. Americans must stand up and demand that members of Congress protect citizens from unwarranted search and seizure of their property.
“We need to be doing better police work and doing less of the universal giving up of our freedom to live our life the way we would like to live our life,” Sen. Paul said to John Pistole, the administrator of the TSA at the DHS, during a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on invasive TSA searches.
How much longer will you remain silent and continue to be pushed around before you tell every member of Congress to stand up and protect your Fourth Amendment rights?
Members of Congress need to hear from you!
Respectfully,
Tony Adkins
Conservative Action Alerts
www.ConservativeActionAlerts.
P.S. The Supreme Court’s ruling infringes upon every Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights. This is why it’s so crucial for members of Congress to vote for a bill that will supersede the Supreme Court’s ruling, and protect our rights!
