Decisions, Decisions

Government is not free to disregard the First Amendment in times of crisis. — Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch

All sorts of things can be called emergency or disaster of major proportions. Simply slapping on that label cannot provide the ground for abrogating our most fundamental rights. — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

   

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens selected the words above to help illustrate his column arising out of the Supreme Court’s decision last week to declare unconstitutional New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order in October drastically limiting attendance at houses of worship. The column, headed “Thank You, Justice Gorsuch,” may be found HERE as it appears on the Salt Lake Tribune website.

The 9/11 truth movement exists not only because the case of the mass murder* of Sept. 11, 2001, has never been solved; not only because science was corrupted in government explanations of the crashes at all three sites;** and not only because the attacks were used speciously to start a string of wars killing millions and causing incalculable destruction abroad. That is all bad enough.

Less obvious is that the USA PATRIOT Act*** abrogating Americans’ rights was swiftly enacted after the attacks and the additional terror caused days later by anonymously mailed letters containing deadly anthrax powder. Terror in the targeted population, the United States of America, did the trick. 

One doesn’t read much about the USA PATRIOT Act. It’s still on the books as far as Bruce**** and I know, in updated form. Has it been widened to further restrict rights? How often and in what ways has it been applied? We’ll try to find out and say. For now, here are two articles of the Bill of Rights to consider:

Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment IV: 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 Witness 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.

— Mark Channing Miller

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* Nearly three thousand that day alone.

** At the World Trade Center in New York City, at the Pentagon outside of Washington, DC, and in a field in Sharpsville, PA. See the work of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth and the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry.

***.This article may not be the best but serves to introduce.

**** Bruce Henry of Pittsfield, MA.