Kowabunga

Kissing the 4th Amendment Goodbye

I received an email from my friend Linda pointing me to this article on the Government’s New Right. This is something of great concern to all of us, so I figured I should get it out there.

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn’t violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway - and no reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking your movements.

That’s the opener, and, contrary to the extremely Left-wing 9th Circuit, we DO have an expectation of privacy in our own driveway and we DO have a reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking our movements.

The Foruth Amendment is quite clear on this:

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 first clause is the telling part, we have the right to be secure in our “persons, houses, papers, and effects”. Our driveways, even if it is not behind a security gate and fence like they are for wealthy people, or part of our house, and, if you want to be a stickler, is a part of our effects. Our vehicles, being our personal property, are also a part of our effects; effects, as it is used in the Fourth Amendment includes all property that an individual may own. Yes, Virginia, even your Remington 12-gauge and box of shells are a part of your effects. This view is validated by various dictionaries, including the Webster’s 1828 dictionary stating the following: “8. In the plural, effects are goods; movables; personal estate. The people escaped from the town with their effects.”

What we have here is a very Liberal court that has just invalidated a very important part of our Constitution, specifically the Fourth Amendment, by stating we do not have a right to be secure in our personal property; that the government can trespass, without warrant, and place tracking devices on our privately owned vehicles, also without warrant. Unless, of course, you are wealthy enough to have your own security fence and gate, preventing such an intrusion (which is what the court decision goes on to say).

Tags: 4th Amendment, Civil Liberties, Constitution