Dear Senators and Representatives,
I humbly offer the following, much more concise, approach to solving the FISA debate. Please don't think of this as any sort of compromise or capitulation. I prefer to think of it as creating a "more perfect" constitution.
Amendment IV
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.
As long as we're in there, lets fix a few other pesky problems.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of Christian religion, or and requiring prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or and abridging the freedom of speech, or and of the press; or and the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The United States of America has always been and always shall be a Christian Nation.
Amendment V
<sNo</del> All persons shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on without a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in especially including cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person and all persons may be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor and shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor and be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor and shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
If you're guilty, you're guilty. If you're innocent, prove it.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall not enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and not to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; not to be confronted with the witnesses against him; not to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and not to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
It's time to put an end to people obscuring their guilt with the facts and forcing the taxpayers to fund their attempts to deny their guilt.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not may be required, nor and excessive fines imposed, nor and cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
The last part of this has already been established in statute, but let's just be clear about it.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage imply any others retained by the people.
What's stated is stated. What's not is not.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people "elected" politicians and their corporate sponsors.
Speaking of corporate sponsors, we should get back to editing the preamble:
We the people corporations of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union free marketplace, establish corporate justice, insure domestic corporate tranquility, provide for the common corporate defense, promote the general corporate welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity shareholders, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
And finally, in the spirit of strict constructionism, a little clean up work:
Amendment XIII
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XIV
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Amendment XV
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XIX
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXIV
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXVI
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.