flynn23 wrote:
You say that you don't think our society would want the 4th amendment if they were voting for it now. I don't know if I agree with that. It's very American to view 'property' as one if its God given rights.

I think it would be framed as a debate between the pragmatic need to discover terrorists, child molesters, and drug trafficers versus the elite ideals of borderline communist ACLU liberals. Examples would be presented of a large number of drug busts and a handful of kidnapped children being discovered through random police inspections of homes. You'd be told that the police only inspect a small percentage of homes each year, and those inspections are courteous and brief for most people. Right wing commentators would accuse civil libertarians of siding with islamist terrorists or attempting to protect child molesters. In order words, it would look exactly the same as any other modern political debate about civil liberties.

Civil liberties are only advanced in the wake of clear abuses of power targeting clearly innocent people, and only if the abusers are overthrown. The rest of the time, the natural inclination of society is to move against civil liberties. This movement is only constrained by societal memory of past abuses, and only for so long.

RE: I Am Progress - Hands Off My Laptop