Scott Boehmer

Tag: United States Constitution

  • Fourth Amendment?

    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.

    Fourth Amendment of the Constitution

    The Fourth Amendment protects every individual’s constitutional right to be “free from arbitrary interference by law officers.” Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U. S., at 878. After today, that may no longer be true for those who happen to look a certain way, speak a certain way, and appear to work a certain type of legitimate job that pays very little. Because this is unconscionably irreconcilable with our Nation’s constitutional guarantees, I dissent.

    Justice Sotomayor

    25A169 Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo (Supreme Court)

  • The Parchment Barrier

    No document, however brilliantly conceived, can resist people who view its constraints and its needs as needling inconveniences, rather than sacred boundaries and responsibilities. Constitutional democracy is high-maintenance. It only works if the people who are meant to care, actually care – and express their investment through active stewardship. Not just when it’s convenient, not just when their side wins or loses, not just when they feel like it, but always.

    What the United States is witnessing now, what every democracy is facing in the middle of a global backslide, is the exposure of the constitutional system’s fundamental vulnerability: it cannot withstand the destructive pressure of a populace who have lost interest. Who have lost faith. Who no longer believe in the project itself. Who have simply stopped showing up.

    Joan Westenberg

    The Parchment Barrier (The Index)

  • The Constitution Should Be a Red Line

    In fact, this herky-jerky structure of checks and balances, vetoes, two houses, jurisdiction left to the states, the war powers divided between the president and the congress. This unwieldy structure is the whole idea. No one has or should ever have all the power. So the concern I’m raising today isn’t some academic exercise or manifestation of political jealousy, or abstract institutional loyalty. It’s the guts of the system designed to protect us from the inevitable, and I mean inevitable, abuse or an authoritarian state.

    Senator Angus S. King, Jr.

    Now is the time to establish a redline — the Constitution itself (Senator Angus S. King, Jr.)