Your rights

Dan, a friend to this blog, directs our attention to this important story. Lots of people have expressed their outrage at the (alleged) infringement of their rights under the Second Amendment. But what about all those other amendments? Take numero uno, the one about free speech....

However, the government is arresting those speaking out … and violently crushing peaceful assemblies which attempt to petition the government for redress.

A federal judge found that the law allowing indefinite detention of Americans without due process has a “chilling effect” on free speech. And see this and this.

The threat of being labeled a terrorist for exercising our First Amendment rights certainly violates the First Amendment. The government is using laws to crush dissent, and it’s gotten so bad that even U.S. Supreme Court justices are saying that we are descending into tyranny.

I really hate to say anything nice about Rand Paul, but he and I are on the same page here...

Senator Rand Paul correctly notes:

The domestic use of drones to spy on Americans clearly violates the Fourth Amendment and limits our rights to personal privacy.

Paul introduced a bill to “protect individual privacy against unwarranted governmental intrusion through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles commonly called drones.”

Emptywheel notes in a post entitled “The OTHER Assault on the Fourth Amendment in the NDAA? Drones at Your Airport?”:

These genuine assaults on our liberties have occurred under both Republican and Democratic presidents. This is not a partisan matter, although too many people insist on that framing.

Personally, I have no interest in owning an assault weapon. I'd rather have drone-free skies.