The 4th Amendment Is Dead And Getting Deader But No One Mourns

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Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – Since nobody else cares about it, I’m going to stop caring about it.  I was going to read you the 4^th Amendment, but since I don’t think it matters anymore, I’m not going to.  If you’re going to be stopped and searched by, again, a federale, you’ve got to ask the question, again, under what authority? “An act of Congress in 1986.”  Okay, under what authority did they base that?  Procedure matters.  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

 

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  Next up is Dennis in Nevada.  Dennis, you are on The Mike Church Show.  How are you?

Caller Dennis:  I’m doing great, Mike, how about yourself?

Mike:  I’m well, sir.  See my aforementioned answer to that query.

Caller Dennis:  I have a question for you.  I just notice that this administration, it never seems to not use a tragedy for their agenda.  Do you see them as maybe attempting to infringe on our 4^th Amendment rights as citizens telling —

Mike:  You mean infringe more?  When did they stop?

Caller Dennis:  Infringe more on the 4^th Amendment protection.  I heard them say they’re going to be searching people going onto the buses in Boston, that people should be prepared to be stopped in their vehicles and searched.  I was wondering if you think that the administration is going to try to use this tragedy to allow the TSA to do more of their highway safety programs where they’re stopping vehicles on the highway and searching vehicles?

Mike:  Those are very good and very loaded questions.  I was probably one of three people of the 30,000 or so that attended the Republican National Convention in Tampa this summer, along with my producer Andrew and great hosts like Andrew Wilkow and Tim Farley from the POTUS Channel and others that came along.  I was probably the only one that sat in line while the FBI and TSA and regular Army and whoever else was there from the federal apparatus was scanning and searching the vehicles before you could get into — Andrew, what was the name of the convention center we were at?  That wasn’t Staples Center.

AG:  Was it the Tampa Bay Times Forum?

Mike:  Whatever the complex was, I was probably the only one sitting there going: There is no constitutional justification for what you are currently doing in this moment and time.  We’re under no threat of invasion.  We’re not under a declaration of war that I know of.  The governor of Florida has not said that he has been invaded or believes that hostile forces have invaded and intend Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan or anyone else harm.  So how could the federal government claim any authority in Tampa, Florida to provide security?  That’s the constitutional question.

I’m going to answer it like a loser, quixotic and delusional 18^th century federalist.  I’m going to say they don’t.  Romney can certainly provide his own security.  The State of Florida has ample resources.  There were Tampa cops there, state police there.  Those are all adequate.  I look at it from the point of view that if you’re being stopped in Boston, no country has claimed any responsibility for this.  Congress has not acted.  Under what authority does the FBI march into the streets of Boston and take control of the situation?  The Posse Comitatus Act basically says that if they’re a paramilitary organization, they can’t do that, yet it happens.  We have people out there screaming, [mocking] “Get the FBI in here.  We need to get the federales in here.”

Okay, so we just throw all that, even the process of federalism, out the window.  It’s just gone.  No one thinks about it.  Few of us think about it.  If we do, as I say, we’re tilting towards windmills and we’re a bunch of quixotic, delusional nut jobs who need to have our heads examined.  My short answer to you is who cares about the 4^th Amendment other than you and me, Dennis?  Do people even know what it says?  Do people even know what the 4^th Amendment says?

Caller Dennis:  That’s a great question.  In the field that I work in, I see it violated every day.

Mike:  Since nobody else cares about it, I’m going to stop caring about it.  I was going to read you the 4^th Amendment, but since I don’t think it matters anymore, I’m not going to.  If you’re going to be stopped and searched by, again, a federale, you’ve got to ask the question, again, under what authority?  [mocking] “An act of Congress in 1986.”  Okay, under what authority did they base that?  Procedure matters.  We talked about this yesterday, the rules of golf are obeyed by the men that play the game.  Many times they obey the rules even when no one is looking and they don’t want to cheat.  Why aren’t the rules of legislating and law obeyed by the men that make the laws, which would be the Congress and the Senate and its very adjutant agencies?  Shouldn’t they be abiding by and obeying those laws?  I think they should.  Apparently such is not the case.

End Mike Church Show Transcript