Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the title of this amendment is the ``Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale.'' The Fourth Amendment is no mere limitation of government power. The Fourth Amendment is fundamental to the concept of American liberty. The Fourth Amendment was a response to the British writs of assistance, which served as general warrants and permitted almost limitless searches of homes and ships of colonies. In 1761, an attorney named James Otis forcefully attacked the writs of assistance, and John Adams described that he was so inspired by Otis and the arguments that, then and there, the ``child of Independence'' was born. The Fourth Amendment prohibits these kinds of general warrants. For a search to be reasonable, the Fourth Amendment dictates that the government must identify the individual, the items, and the location to be searched, but, today, all it takes to eviscerate the Fourth Amendment is some cash. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act already requires the government to seek a court order before compelling service providers to disclose contents and records, but this law does not restrict providers from voluntarily selling that information to nongovernmental third parties. Due to this loophole in the law, American Government has effectively resurrected the idea of general warrants that the Founding Fathers were so appalled by. Thankfully, the House of Representatives voted to close that loophole.…”