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.
The fourth amendment seems to be dying a slow death during the Bush era. These warrantless wiretaps are crooked, and there are ways to spy on the bad guys without going to the extreme of a program involving totally unfettered wiretapping. I for one don't feel much "safer" because the government can secretly wiretap.
An anonymous writer was quoted by Ben Franklin - "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
There's a reason 40 lawsuits have been filed against the telecom companies for their participation in warrantless wiretapping. These lawsuits are a mere sample of when people's 4th amendment rights were violated.
If more Americans were actually concerned about finding out what's happening to their constitutional freedoms, they'd be twisting their representatives arms to stop this flood of Big Brother tactics. Sadly, a lot of Americans are apathetic about the lawmaking process, and so they're getting what they deserve (I guess). How can they want "change" and tolerate this egregious "politics as usual"?
