In Colonial America it was common for British soldiers, tax collectors and other representatives of the Crown to obtain a writ of assistance giving them the authority to enter any home, business or ship at any time of the day or night in search of contraband goods or to interrogate the residents and owners over payment of taxes or for most any other reason.
Writs of assistance were very vague search warrants and it was a simple procedure to obtain them. They could be had for any reason or no reason from the Colonial governor or from judges — all of whom held their positions at the whim of the King of England.
In 1761 James Otis Jr., the Advocate General of Massachusetts — whose job it was to defend the issuance of the writs in court — resigned his position and took the side of 63 Boston merchants in a court battle against the writs. He represented the merchants for free, and though he lost the case in a court stacked against him, he earned the title of patriot.
It was his five-hour speech in court that served “as the spark in which originated the American Revolution,” according to John Adams, who was sitting in the courtroom at the time.
“The child of independence was then and there born, every man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me to go away as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance,” Adams said.
Independence and the 4th
The issue was such an important one to the Colonists that it was mentioned as one of the grievances in the Declaration of Independence: “He (the king)… sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”
Since it was so important an issue to the Founding Fathers it’s not surprising that an Amendment was included in the Constitution that forbids the government from arbitrarily searching people, homes and businesses.
It was the Colonists’ experience with unreasonable searches and seizures and Otis’ speech that planted the seeds that grew into the 4th Amendment which reads:
“The right of the people to be secure in the 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 4th Amendment has been under assault before in our nation’s history. And that has been chronicled in other articles on this site. But now that right, guaranteed by our Constitution, is as dead as a doornail.
Personal freedom and personal privacy is passé in America. Ironically most aren’t aware, but you certainly are.
The worst assault on the 4th Amendment came in the wake of September 11th, 2001 with the USA PATRIOT Act, which was most unpatriotic and authored in no small part by the current president, one Joe Biden.
Without getting into specifics, the bill gives government investigators almost unlimited power to conduct wiretaps, eavesdrop, access and search records and enter homes in an effort to root out those it considers terrorists. It has since been repeatedly abused and used against Americans.
The travesty is that Americans, for the most part, seemingly don’t care. They’ve decided that government should be allowed to do anything and everything “if it makes us safer.” In fact, many letters to me have said as much. So the heavy hand of government has grown bigger and stronger — as government is wont to do — and the USA Patriot Act has been renewed and strengthened.
Are we safer?
In the name of safety, we have ceded our right not to be searched at airports… almost without a whimper. First, we accepted removing our shoes and opening our bags. Then we gave up our lotions, sanitizers and water bottles. Then we accepted being frisked and poked and prodded. Then we accepted having our bodies irradiated and naked pictures being taken and ogled at and saved in the system — in effect allowing government to assume we are all criminals with plans to blow up an airplane — all in the interest of “safety.”
Now we have x-ray capable vans looking inside vehicles and homes, stingrays intercepting mobile phone traffic, widespread cell phone spyware and probably a dozen things we don’t even know about that are searching us illegally without regard for the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. They are looking for something — anything — the heavy hand of government finds “suspicious.”
No longer are you secure in your “persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.” Government agents can peer into almost anything and you will never know it until they show up on your doorstep flashing a warrant based on something they saw or heard.
And not only are you no longer secure in your home, your thoughts — or future thoughts — are being probed as well via social media posts, e-mails sent on “free” e-mail services, and even facial recognition software that seeks to determine if individuals are likely to commit crimes.
And, of course, we already have “hate crime” laws in which judges and prosecutors deign to know the thoughts and motives behind criminal acts — giving the impression that a heinous crime is somehow even more heinous because the person harbors some type of grudge or bias.
Folks, we have reached the totalitarian regime foreshadowed in George Orwell’s 1984, where all that we do is watched and where even our thoughts have become crimes.
“You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.” — 1984, George Orwell.
What Orwell didn’t know is that the technology would advance to let Big Brother watch us even in darkness. Our nation has become the Oceania of 1984, where history is changed daily, our actions are watched, our thoughts are discerned, our communities are decaying and we are in a perpetual state of war.
Buying Big Brother’s vow to keep us safe we have kicked the Constitution to the curb and if the Founders — who sacrificed so much for liberty — were alive today they would surely weep at our foolishness.
Privacy is directly linked to personal survival. Keep as much information as you can private and try not to give the government and corporations new information. A fundamental rule of freedom is the less that government knows about you, the better. Never think otherwise, not even for the few seconds it takes you to relinquish that freedom online. It’s never a bad time to think about your digital past and better protect your digital privacy future.
At its most basic, simply play hard to get with anyone requesting anything from you. You are not obligated to answer anyone for any reason or no reason. Your life is your own!
Written by Bob Livingston
