Freedoms taken....

Hi all, I'm doing a history report about what freedoms have been taken from us and if the founding fathers intended us to have them or not basically. What I'm posting for is to see if you all would help me out in my search for laws, rules, regulations, etc. that take away freedoms from us American citizens. I have the Patriot Act so far as I'm just beggining the search. Hopefully some of you will be able to help me out with some sources. Feel free to give your opinions on the stuff that you post.

Thanks
Rabbit.

Privacy, USA Patriot Act, which swept through Congress last year, erased most of our rights. Now the government can keep watch on your phone calls, your Internet use and other aspects of your personal life regardless of whether you are the subject of an investigation or suspected of wrongdoing. Search warrants no longer require credible or hard evidence to be granted, they just need to be suspicious.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act .It allows the FBI to go to a judge to get a search warrant, now unlike the law before 911 no probable cause must be established. The subject of the search warrant need not be an individual that is the target of the investigation� all the government has to do is establish that the information they are seeking is relevant to an on going investigation. What self-respecting FBI agent couldn�t establish some relevancy if there�re going to the trouble of getting a search warrant?

news.bookweb.org...

I am not defending the Patriot Act, but it should noted that last I heard that the evil section 215, which caused librarians across the country to burn bras while abandonding their Cuban counterparts that are being jailed left and right, has yet to be 'used' - and if and when it does it has to be reported to congress.

To me, I'd be more worried about sections of the DCMA. For instance, the RIAA, or anyone for that matter, can, under the DCMA, get your personal info from your ISP - by having a court clerk sign what amounts to a warrant. Not a judge, a CLERK.

If you're interested the entire text of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act can be found at the following address.

thomas.loc.gov...:H.R.2281.ENR:

The DSEA covers what the USA PATRIOT Act didn't; just thought I'd add that.

McCarthyism took away many freedoms durring the cold war. The patriot act is not the first time freedoms have been taken away, and it will not be the last. Usually we get them back after a while, but not always.

Pot was made illegal, which was a loss of a freedom. You can't say "fire" in a movie theater. When the country was first founded, it was illegal to hold public office and be an athiest. Continually through America's history, the freedom to visit some countries has been taken away, the latest being Cuba (that I know of).

As for the founding fathers intending it or not, I think they kind of did, and kind of didn't. The constitution is set up in such a way that the law can be flexible. We, as citizens of the US, could repeal the patriot act if we were all to get together and pass an amendment which would be ratified by 2/3rd of the states in the union. Congress could repeal it because we voted all of the old guys out and put in a new crowd against it. I think the founding fathers knew there would be times our freedoms would have to be taken away in the name of security, and made sure there was a way to get them back.

Originally posted by kinglizard
Privacy, USA Patriot Act, which swept through Congress last year, erased most of our rights. Now the government can keep watch on your phone calls, your Internet use and other aspects of your personal life regardless of whether you are the subject of an investigation or suspected of wrongdoing.

Technically speaking, this has no bearing on the original question. Neither the telephone nor the internet were around when the US founding fathers laid down the law.
If they were - who knows? Maybe things would have been different.