Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Constitution of the United States contains a number of constitutional protections for the citizens of our great Republic. Among the many provisions that it contains, in addition to the structural safeguards of federalism and the separation of powers, separating out power along two axes--one vertical, which we call federalism, and the other horizontal, which we call the separation of powers--the Constitution also includes a number of substantive restrictions. These are things that the government may not do, and there are penalties attached to the government's doing those things. Among those many protections can be found the provisions of the Bill of Rights, including the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Fourth Amendment reminds us that it is our right--a fundamental, inalienable right--as citizens in a free republic, to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and that any warrants issued under government authority have to be backed by probable cause, and any probable cause-based warrant has to include with particularity a description of the places and persons to be searched and to be seized. This is a tradition that reaches not just back a couple of centuries, but it reaches back much farther than that and has its origins not only in our own country but in our mother country, in the United Kingdom. By the time John Wilkes was serving in Parliament in the 1760s, there had been a long-established tradition and understanding.…”