I want to see a constitional amendment specifying a right to privacy. Twenty years ago, I wouldn't have thought it was necessary, but with our civil rights under attack, it's time that we spell this right out by amending our constitution.
Like the amendments in the Bill of Rights, the Privacy Amendment doesn't have to be too specific. That's what courts are for, to decide what those amendments mean in any given time in our history.
There doesn't have to be a specification for reproductive rights in my Privacy Amendment. In fact, let's not make this about abortion, although it can be used down the line to protect all personal medical issues. Our communications should be covered, our homes, our bedrooms, our relationships, where we shop, what we buy, our financial records, our medical records will all be part of this.
It's time that we get the people in this country who don't believe we have a right to privacy on the record, voting "No, we don't have this right". It will give us ammunition to use against those who vote against it for decades to come.
And this amendment gives us the opportunity to open up to the millions of Americans for whom keeping the government out of our business is the most important issue. I want this to happen even if it means limiting gun laws to some extent -- at first.
I'm not a constitutional scholar or even a skilled DailyKos diarist, but this is an important issue to me, and it seems like something that can unite a majority of Americans under a more liberal flag.
When I read several articles recently that mentioned a Right to Privacy Amendment, I thought it would spark a wide debate on the issue, but it did not. If there was ever a time for such a debate, indeed, a vote on the matter, now is the time.