Cross-posted at StreetProphets.com, a dKos community.
On December 16, the New York Times reported that the President, upon the recommendation of the Attorney General, approved wiretaps and other electronic surveillance of US citizens without seeking or attaining a warrant from a court. On December 17, the President defiantly confirmed that he had, in fact, authorized such surveillance on American citizens. He claimed that these actions were taken pursuant to the authority vested in the President under the Constitution, as well as the authority granted to the President by Congress.
As this constitutional crisis unfolds, it is vital to state that neither justification given by the President on December 17 is legitimate. Most importantly, the President's actions violate the one single theological statement made in our nation's founding documents. In light of the single theological premise of our nation's founding, the President has violated not only the laws and constitution of the United States, but has violated "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God."
Whatever their individual views and faith beliefs, the Framers of our Nation made only one theological statement on behalf of the Nation in our founding documents. It comes in the
Declaration of Independence, and serves as the framework for all that follows, including the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Framers declared that every human being is created equal, and that every human being has certain rights given by their Creator which cannot be taken away from them...including the right of liberty.
It is from this theological statement - that God gave the right of liberty to every human being - that the Framers shaped our national government. The only proper function of the government, the Framers declared in 1776, is
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
The only need for government is to "secure" these rights given by the Creator. The government is only legitimate when it holds the consent of the governed.
The Framers separated the powers of our national government for the sole purpose of providing checks on those powers. Each branch checks the other two; when properly functioning, no branch is able to dominate and, therefore, violate the rights of the people.
The Fourth Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights to specifically protect God's grant of liberty to every person in the country. It reads:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
People have a right of privacy in their person, home, papers and effects, and the government cannot search (or wiretap) without first seeking a warrant. And a court may not issue a warrant for such a search unless the government first demonstrates probable cause and describe with particularity the thing(s) to be searched.
This isn't a suggestion. It is a constitutional mandate intended to protect the God-given right of liberty held by every American. The Framers realized that, from time to time, the government may need to search and seize people and/or their possessions in order to protect the nation. But the only legitimate violation of a person's God-given right to liberty comes when the executive goes before a judge and presents probable cause to justify the search. In this way, the judicial branch - and the process itself - acts to protect the God-given liberty rights of all Americans.
The President says that he approved these wiretaps without warrants because he needed to protect the nation. King George II said he needed to approve general warrants to search the homes of the colonists to protect the Crown.
Neither is a legitimate excuse or justification for violating the rights that God gave to the people. There are ways of protecting the nation, written into our laws, which do not violate this principle. The President has chosen to ignore these laws and the wide range of options they present to him; he has chosen not to ask Congress for additional authority; he has chosen not to ask a court for approval of his wiretaps.
The President has acted (and is acting) as an unrestrained tyrant. His actions violate the very foundation of our country. His actions violate the will of God, as expressed by our Framers in their only theological statement.
His criminal actions cannot be allowed to stand. The governed did not consent to this.