U.S. Constitution grows mouth, enforces self
You love America, so you're gonna want to hear this.
It’s a cautionary tale of how our Nation’s highest court’s been leading us off the edge of a cliff for
over a century.
And it’s been playing out right in front of our own eyes for generations...but hardly anyone ever
talks about it.
It started way back in 1911 when this dude named Fremont Weeks was arrested for the heinous
crime of illegally transporting lottery tickets through the mail.
No telling how long he’d been doing it...
But once the cops got wise to his grift..they sent an agent over to arrest him at Union Station in
Kansas City where he worked for a package delivery company.
But the arresting officer forgot one thing...he showed up without a warrant to arrest the bad guy.
But, wait, you say…
It Doesn’t work that way...
Doesn’t matter…
Some minor constitutional technicality ain’t gonna stop a good cop from doing his job…
So he arrests him anyway...without a warrant. And the prosecutors charge the lottery bandit with
9 different crimes.
But of the 9 counts, only one of them stuck at trial…
Who cares?
That’s all they needed to convict him...fine him... and sentence him to prison. Which they
gleefully did.
And...if that’s not bad enough...here’s the really fun part:
On the same day they sent that one agent to arrest him at his job...several other cops went to
Fremont’s house.
While there, they roughed up the neighbor so bad that he told them where Fremont kept a spare
key to his front door.
The cops grabbed the key and stormed the house.
Once inside, they took possession of various papers and articles they uncovered there. They
left the home, and later turned the papers over to the United States Marshal.
But the Marshal wasn’t satisfied with the results of the first search..
So...later that day...those street cops and the Marshal all went back together.
The marshal had to make sure nothing was left behind that the government could use at trial
against this domestic terrorist.
So they all go back to Fremont’s house.
They rapa-tap-tap on the door.
And they breeze right in as someone from the inside opens what’s left of the door.
We don’t know who let them in. It wasn’t Fremont. He was in jail.
So it had to have been a boarder or some other guest, right? Maybe? Who knows?
Whoever it was...there was a gang of government agents outside the door demanding entry,
and nobody inside was dumb enough to put up any resistance to such force.
Who would, right? I mean...who’s going to tell a bunch of cops they can’t come in when they’re
banging on the front door so hard that the door actually breaks? Not me.
Anyways…
This time they barge in, and under the leadership of the Marshal…who clearly has a lot of
experience at this type of enhanced search and seizure technique…
...they rummage through all the furniture, closets, mattresses, cabinets, carpets, rugs,
drawers...everything.
They completely plunder the joint.
And they leave with all the loot: letters...envelopes...a tin box...a leather grip...some bond
certificates...stock certificates...plenty of cash...
You name it...they grabbed it. I mean they really wanted to hang this guy.
In today’s money the stuff those cops took represented a value of over $350,000.
But you want to know the real kicker?
They never had a warrant to search any of it...much less seize it.
Hell...they never even went to a judge to ask for a warrant.
They just showed up at Fremont’s house, rifled through his life, and took whatever they wanted.
Twice in one day!
But that’s not the way you’re supposed to do it.
Cops are supposed to do it the way the law says they have to do it.
And in this case...the law is the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
It says the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall
not be violated.
But the shock and awe doesn’t end there.
Fremont’s lawyers filed all the proper court papers to make the cops and the prosecutors return
the stolen property.
And did they grant this wish? No...but sort of…
The prosecutors agreed to return all of the property that they weren’t going to use against Mr.
Fremont at trial.
And they kept all the evidence they intended to use against him to secure his conviction.
In fact...the trial judge even ruled that the prosecutors could keep the incriminating evidence and
use it at trial against Freemont.
And then at trial...Fremont’s lawyers again begged the judge to not let the prosecutors use
stolen evidence against the guy who’s Fourth Amendment rights were grossly violated to obtain
the evidence.
The judge wouldn’t hear it. He let all of the evidence in.
Constitution be damned.
And...not surprisingly... the jury convicted Fremont on evidence that the cops stole out of his
house while he was under arrest…
...acts all completed without warrants or other legitimate legal authority.
So when Fremont’s case finally made it to the United States Supreme Court…
The Supreme Court reversed his conviction and reminded the entire Free World that…
The Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution represent the principles of
humanity and civil liberty that were secured in our Mother Country only after centuries of
struggle.
The purpose of the limitations and restraints against the Federal Government found in the
Constitution is to forever secure the People against the inevitable horrors of tyrannical
governments.
And these protections against abuse at the hands of the powerful reaches all of us…whether
we’ve been accused of a crime or not.
But who’s supposed to give force and effect to the Constitution and its Amendments?
It doesn’t just magically enforce itself, does it?
Well...according to the Supreme Court the duty of enforcing the Constitution is obligatory upon
all entrusted by the Federal system with the enforcement of the laws.
The cops. Oh…and the prosecutors, too.
It’s law enforcement’s job to enforce the laws. Make sense?
And what’s the Constitution if it’s not a law?
Well, it is the law.
In fact...it’s the Supreme Law of the Land.
And it is the job of the police and prosecutors to enforce its protections on all of us.
And it is the job of the Courts to make sure that happens.
Thankfully this time...that’s what happened in Fremont’s case.
He was finally vindicated for the constitutional violations that he suffered at the hands of the
very people that were supposed to protect his constitutional rights.
And that’s all well and good.
But the Supreme Court refused to answer the much bigger question presented in Fremont’s
case.
That question is this:
Can a citizen whose constitutional rights have been violated by a federal law enforcement
agent…
...can that citizen sue the individual law enforcement agents that violated his constitutional rights
and recover money damages against the agents?
It’s a question that was first asked over a hundred years ago in the case of Fremont Weeks v.
United States.
And it’s a question that still to this day has not been answered.
In fact...Supreme Court Justices are still fighting with each other to find the right answer to a
question that could very easily affect your freedom or the freedom of the people you love after a
vicious assault by rogue government agents.
Until next time...court’s adjourned.