BY KEVIN SAWYER – Last week, the United States Supreme Court, on a vote of 5-3, pretty much declared that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution no longer exists in reality. It is yet another example of the courts refusing to defend the Constitution as the rule book by which the government, and its minions, must play by. Without the courts defending the Constitution, the citizenry of America are left with few options for recourse.
The Court decided in a Utah drug case that cops who obtain evidence in a case by an illegal manner can still use the evidence in court. This was not so just the day before this decision. The rules of evidence, it seems, no longer exist anymore, either. The Utah case involves a man who was questionably detained and had his vehicle questionably searched. The cops found drugs and arrested him. In that initial case, the judge found that the cops didn’t have probable cause enough to stop the man. However, the judge also stated that an outstanding warrant on a traffic violation made the search acceptable.
The judge in the Utah case gave a wink to the police telling them it is acceptable to use illegal means to obtain an arrest and conviction. Cops can, essentially, become criminals if they are trying to catch who they perceive to be criminals.
Last Monday, five US Supreme Court justices went along saying that police can now find evidence of a crime in any manner that they see fit. The Fourth Amendment doesn’t really exist anymore for these five justices. For them, cops don’t even have to know or understand what the law is anymore. They can just do whatever they want and the judicial system will support them.
When the judicial system refuses to do what they are supposed to do, be the last bastion of protection for the average citizen, then citizens become left with only one viable option and that seems to be violent and armed rebellion. Judges are appointed for the most part, especially at the federal level, so they are immune from scrutiny or removal.
Are police officers no longer American citizens? If they are, then they, too, must abide by the law. The five justices didn’t seem to understand that or make the connection.
The dissenters were led by Sonia Sotomayor who wrote; “The court today now holds that the discovery of a warrant will forgive a police officer’s violation of your Fourth Amendment rights.”
She was joined in the dissent by Justice’s Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
PHOTO CREDITS: The commonsenseshow.com / Vice. com