As we approach our country’s 250th birthday, we ought to reflect on what we owe to Olde England, our “mother country”.
The First Amendment: it’s in our Constitution because there never was, and is not now, a right to freedom of speech in England or the UK. The monarch could imprison And/or kill anybody who said or wrote anything he or she didn’t like. Since 1998 ( yes as late as that) the Human Rights Act in the UK incorporated some general European policy about freedom of expression as a “qualified” right. Meaning, not absolute. In the UK they now have a “banter ban”: anyone who overhears someone making a remark or joke that someone else (or a policeman) doesn’t like will be put on a list as a perpetrator of a “non-crime hate incident”.
This is, almost, Monty Python territory. “Ministry of Non-Crime”?
The Fourth Amendment: its language prevents the issuance of “general warrants” as a reaction to the Wilkes case in England. Wilkes had published a periodical, “The North Briton” # 45, which George III didn’t like. He issued a general warrant for the seizure of any and all persons and documents which were in any way involved in the publication or creation of edition #45. Pretty much carte Blanche for the King’s agents to arrest just about anybody. American colonists followed the case closely and Wilkes was considered a champion of liberty. Nd the drafters of our Constitution protected our citizens from “unreasonable searches and seizures” and required specificity in all search warrants.
THINK how precious and unique these provisions are. They were hard won. We should not take them for granted. Our “mother country” was in most regards a toxic parent.
ST UnWoked & UnVaxxed! 
Rob Paz gave all already.
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I had a retired Green Beret senior enlisted who gave a leg from above the knee for our country.
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Slick had to put a tourniquet on his leg above the knee or bleed out all alone somewhere in Afghanistan. He lived but will always have a notable hitch in his gitty-up for as long as he can still walk.
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A Sailor walked into the spinning blades of a helicopter while escorting USMC Echo Company Two Nine (AKA my (Bad) Company of grunts) onto our helicopters while underway on an LSH somewhere off the coast of SoCal.
In case you were wondering, yes he was instantly decapitated.
Freedom ain’t free believe it or not.
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Thank you Simon. No it ain’t free. But people are willing to GIVE it away. Every time we see a court decision which pays lip service to the First Amendment and continues “but, the right is not absolute”, we take another step down the road to the European nursery for totalitarians. Freedom of speech IS an absolute, unqualified right, as the draughtsmen of our Constitution intended. The phrase “yelling ‘Fire!’ In a crowded theater ” is not a metaphor; it meant, and is limited to, that actual situation.
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Muchas gracias Hypatia for hearing me as well as listening to my rants.
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