Supremes to Consider Fourth Amendment

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 02 Nov 2003 13:00:00 GMT

From libertyforum:

"Today the world faces a single man armed with weapons of mass destruction, manifesting an aggressive, bullying attitude, who may well plunge the world into chaos and bloodshed if he miscalculates. This person, belligerent, arrogant and sure of himself, truly is the most dangerous person on Earth. The problem is that his name is George W. Bush, and he is our president." -- Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School, 22 SEP 02

Ron Miller at Montgomery Citizens for a Safer Maryland - If Guns Were Treated Like Cars - fifty things that would be different. Some are very funny. [picks]

2. You could kill and injure people with your gun while drunk and still have your lawyer get your gun back because you need it for work.

...

44. The Beachboys would have released some songs about guns:

"Spring little Cobray gettin' ready to strike..... Spring little Cobray with all your might....."

"She's real fine my Wonder Nine, she's real fine my Won-der Nine."

"Fun, fun, fun 'til Daddy takes her Kel-Tec away......"

Bob Anez at the Helena (Montana) Independe record - Search warrant dispute goes to high court - once again, the Supreme Court is being asked to rule on the obvious meaning of a section of the Constitution.

The dispute the justices will hear Tuesday has nothing to do with religion, but centers on whether flawed warrants, such as the one used to get access to the Ramirez home, render a search illegal and if law officers can be sued personally for conducting searches based on such faulty warrants.

The case pits the Ramirezes, who have since moved and could not be reached for comment, against an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who led the search. The warrant, wielded by agent Jeff Groh, failed to list the items sought in the raid, instead only describing the property to be searched. The Ramirezes allege that violated their constitutional protection from unreasonable searches.

...

Richard Cordray, Groh's government-paid attorney, said a high court ruling against Groh would affect law officers and the work they do at every level of government.

"If you know you're subject to being sued for mistakes not caught in time, but the courts feel is glaring, officers may be deterred from their obligation to vigorously enforce the law and pursue offenders," he said.

And a damn good thing that would be!

This guy shouldn't be fighting just a lawsuit. He and his compatriots and the judge who signed the warrant should be looking at ten years in camp fed under 18 USC 241 for a conspiracy against the civil rights of the Ramirezes. THAT would give the rest of the jackboots something to think about next time.

In case you've forgotten, the Fourth Amendment says:

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.

Douglas Herman at Strike the Root - Soldier: Just Say No, I Won't Go - how Mr. Herman avoided coming under fire during the Vietnam War. [root]

Robert W. Tracinski at eco-logic - The Hazards of a Smoke-Free Environment - why the spreading cancer of smoking bans is more harmful than the cigarette smoking it claims to be targeting. [trt-ny]

The issue is not whether second-hand smoke is a real danger or a phantom menace, as a study published recently in the British Medical Journal indicates. The issue is: if it were harmful, what would be the proper reaction? Should anti-tobacco activists satisfy themselves with educating people about the potential danger and allowing them to make their own decisions--or should they seize the power of government and force people to make the "right" decision?

Supporters of local tobacco bans have made their choice. Rather than attempting to protect people from an unwanted intrusion on their health, the tobacco bans are the unwanted intrusion. Loudly billed as measures that only affect "public places," they have actually targeted private places: restaurants, bars, nightclubs, shops, and offices--places whose owners are free to set anti-smoking rules or whose customers are free to go elsewhere if they don't like the smoke. Some local bans even harass smokers in places where their effect on others is obviously negligible, such as outdoor public parks.

Paul Pinkham at The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union - Have gun, will not fear it anymore - a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged. Likewise, a gun lover is a gun hater who has survived a home invasion. [geekwitha.45]

Bleeding and weakened from the bullet wound in her chest, Susan Gonzalez aimed her husband's .22-caliber pistol, the one she hated, and emptied it into one of the robbers who had burst through the front door of her rural Jacksonville home.

Those shots ended the life of one robber, led to a life prison term for another and became an epiphany for Gonzalez, a 41-year-old mother of five who runs a photography studio.

Gonzalez had always feared guns, never wanted a gun and argued with her husband, Mike, to please not keep guns in their home.

"I hated guns, all of them," she said. "I was that scared of them that I didn't want them around."

That all changed that terror-filled night nearly three years ago when Susan Gonzalez fought for her life inside her family's home near Jacksonville International Airport.

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair