First And Fourth Amendments

When the founding fathers established the government of America, it is clear that they had the intent of establishing a government that valued principles such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and had a strong separation of powers. This is clear when we read the Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers, and the Constitution. But does our current government value those same principles? I am going to argue that, no, it does not. If the intent of the founders was followed today, the government would be neither neglecting the First and Fourth Amendments, nor slowly degrading the separation of powers to the extent it has in the past 100 years. Let us start with the Fourth Amendment. Before we can examine how it is ignored, it

The main way that it is being disregarded is through the government’s surveillance of calls, text messages, internet browsing, and even phones when they are not being used. One of the most prominent examples of this occurring today is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (more commonly known as the USA PATRIOT Act, or simply the patriot act). According to constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, it “allows officials to sidestep the Fourth Amendment by validating the wholesale disregard of the historic constitutional protections of notice, probable cause, and proportionality,” (Whitehead 1101). Another example of how the right to privacy guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment is being violated can be found in the actions of the Transportation Security Administration, such as searching everyone’s luggage and patting people down before flying. Does this government agency have a warrant to search everyone’s luggage and pat people down? No, but they do it anyway. Based upon these two examples, it should be clear that the Fourth Amendment is being systematically degraded and

amend. I) is being violated. What this amendment does is protect us from government censorship and give us freedom of religion. Now, many people think that we do not have censorship in the US. However, this is not the case. The government does engage in censoring citizens and the media, just not as directly as what may come to mind when they hear the term censorship. Based upon this, how do we have censorship in the US? Free speech zones, which basically they are small areas for protesters to protest. People have been arrested for protesting outside of them. For example, John Blair was arrested in 2002 for refusing to go into the free speech zone at an event where Dick Cheney was speaking (Blair). Yes, this still allows for protest, but free speech zones restricts free speech, which is a violation of the First