It depends on if your definition of "rights" is right

During the SCOTUS case, District of Columbia v. Heller, Obama was asked at a debate what he thought about the case. He responded that he thought the court would rule in favor of an individual right but added, "But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can't constrain the exercise of that right."

I am sorry, did I hear that correctly? State and local Governments have the power to trample over Constitutional rights? What happened to "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."? As a lawyer he should know that federal law has supremacy over state and local and the Constitution over federal.

Let's step back for a minute and make-believe we are in Obama's world, (a scary thought I know) where unalienable rights are not guarantied by law and subject to the whims of lesser courts and lawmakers.

Right to Habeas Corpus:
Lets say a locality in the south decides to restrict the right of Habeas Corpus seeing as it is such a bother to tell blacks why the are in jail.......After all, do you even need a reason to arrest blacks? Isn't their skin color reason enough?

Right to have a lawyer present during questioning:
So expensive to provide a public defender to all the poor people, especially the ones we "know" are guilty. Let's have our city "restrict" public defenders to only those we think could be innocent not those SOBs we know are guilty.

Right against unreasonable search and seizure:
Waiting to get a search warrant hampers the Sheriff's office from busting suspected meth labs. Restrict need for a search warrant in drug related cases.

Right against self-incrimination:
We have ways to make you talk...........

Right to peaceably assemble:
Let's restrict gatherings of over 30 people to social events only so my opponent can't hold rallies.

Right to petition the government for redress of grievances:
"Hey, I am getting tried of people coming into city council taking up our time whining. Let's restrict access to the meetings to only those here to compliment or bribe us."

Freedom of the press:
"Newspapers keep running negative stories on the mayor, from now on all stories must first be approved by the mayor's office before publishing."

Freedom of religion:
"Our town church is now officially the First Baptist Church of Christ. Those not attending Sunday services will be subject to a $500 fine for first offense, 30 days jail for repeat offenders."


I could go on and on but you see what I am getting at: Rights are rights and if lower courts are free to "restrict" them then where does it end and what good is the Constitution? Talk about opening Pandora's Box, the best way to go about destroying the Constitution I have heard in a while.

Or maybe I have funny ideas about the meanings of words like "Unalienable" and phrases like "Shall not be infringed."

Adolf Legalité

In 1923 Germany was in the throes of the volatile post-Great War period. In an attempt to keep up with war reparation payments to the victorious allies imposed in 1921 Germany hyper-inflated it’s Mark. Before the reparations it was four Marks to the US Dollar but by 1922 it was 400 Marks to the USD. In the Late summer of 1923 when the Mark was about 1,000,000,000 to the USD a former army corporal and head of the National Socialist Party Adolf Hitler announced he would hold a series of mass meetings in the City of Munich’s large beer halls starting on the 27 of September. Able to call up 15,000 of his loyal SA Stormtroopers Hitler was a force to be reckoned with; as a result Bavarian Prime Minister Eugene Knilling declared a state of emergency.

Following the example of Mussolini’s successful March on Rome, Hitler planned on bring in his SA and taking the leaders of Bavaria at gun point and forcing them to recognize Hitler, with Great War hero General von Ludendorff at his side, as their leader. Once in control of Bavaria the Nazis would move on the rest of the country. On November 8th, 1923 Hitler, Göring with his SA and others burst into a beer hall the local leaders were speaking at with guns drawn and shouts of “The National Revolution has begun!”

Over the next 24 hours the uprising unraveled culminating with Hitler, Ludendorff and Göring at the head of a column of SA numbering 2000 men. They ran right into a roadblock of 100 soldiers and police. In the ensuing skirmish 4 police and 16 Nazis were killed and Göring was severely wounded in the groin. While Ludendorff pressed forward under fire Hitler fled leading the Great War General to brand Hitler a coward.

It was while serving his five year prison sentence that Hitler and Rudolf Hess wrote Mein Kampf. Also during his imprisonment Hitler rethought his ideas on violent revolution. The sehr ordenlech German people were not comfortable with the rules being broken and reacted badly to it. So once Hitler got out of jail his rise to power was characterized by doing everything strictly legal. Hitler was so committed to exact legality that he became known as “Adolf the Legal One” or Adolf Legalité.

In our time we face many threats to our wealth, peace of mind, freedom and our very lives. Marching under foreign flag and wearing stormtroopers’ uniform, goose stepping in jack boots, evil is easy to see and defeat. While we must always watch for Hitler’s SA marching towards us there is another kind of evil we must fear and watch for most: The Fifth Column rallying around our flag!

They say all the right things; all they want is our best interest. They say they love everything we love; they will fight for our children. “Rally with me to our flag that our Nation might persevere!” they cry; but listen to them, look at their words and deeds of old and their private words with friends. All great nations that have fallen have fallen from the rot inside; evil was not at the doorstep but at the hearth!
In 1923 German soldiers saw evil marching on them and opened fire, smashing the evil that threatened their nation. Yet in 1933 Hitler was able to size full control of the government that had gunned down his followers less than ten years before. He used Germany’s own laws to destroy the very laws he was using.

We must always be vigilant that our own system is not used against us to destroy us and enslave us. We must always ask not how we would use a law, but how our worst enemy would use it. Be careful in who we let close to the halls of power, do not make hasty judgment in cave in a moment of passion to a wolf in sheep’s clothing.