My A.P. Gov. teacher is possibly the funniest man I know. I actually want to be him, except... you know... a woman and not amish. But everday his intelligence astounds me. In class last week he explored the evolution of America citizens' rights. Today, much civil unrest is mustered from passed legislation like the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The USA Patriot Act noteably is a foe to US citizen's 4th Amendment substantive right to privacy. And the Military Commissions Act infringes upon non-US citizen's habeas corpus right (article 1, section 9) and due process rights (4th and 15th amendments).
While I will be the first advocate for political action towards such Acts that empower the executive branch, one must look back at history and realize rights have been incorporated into our Constitution from the Bill of Rights one court case at a time, a process which has not yet been fully completed. For instance, before the Judiciary Act of 1789 and the subsequent Supremacy clause, a state could infringe one's natural right to property (like in the case Barron vs. Baltimore) and have no legal action taken towards the state. Only recently has the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments been incoporated into our federal constitution and STILL the 2nd amendment (the right to bear arms) has not been incorporated. Meaning that if a state were to pass legislature that prohibited fire-arm ownership, then that law would be valid until it reached the Supreme Court and the Courts inevitably rule in favor of gun ownership. Wierd? For the Bill of Rights to be incorporated into our Federal Constitution, a right has to be challenged resulting in starri decisis. Even today, as the 1st amendment protects various rights of US citizens, the rights are still be challenged (time, place, manner restrictions...etc.).
The lesson in my Gov. class illustrated the bounds our nation has taken at improving and strengthening the rights of citizens through incorporation. I'm not trying to demote the idea of taking action to protest new legislature from our government, but it's just something to keep in mind, we've had it worse. Encouragement to keep moving forward in expanding US citizens' rights, perhaps? It's just a lesson to all those that complain that American citizen's rights are under siege, because really, the rights that are awarded to US citizens today are exponentially more powerful then say, one hundred years ago. Keep complaining about intrusive legislature, but remember where America comes from. As a nation, we need to move forward instead of fall backwards to times where not all rights applied equally. The rights one is allowed as a US citizen are greater than ever before, however, one must promote this upward trend rather than submit to falling backwards.
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