In 1787, 11 years after the United States declared its independence, the Founding Fathers came together to write the Constitution.
Prior to this, the U.S. was guided by the Articles of Confederation that prohibited a central government and allowed each individual state, in part, to operate as separate entities with its own set of rules, regulations and laws. This caused a lot of chaos and fighting, especially in areas of trade and commerce. It also left the new country defenseless without a military to defend it.
During the four months of the Constitutional Convention, representatives from each state shared, debated and compromised ideas in order to create a new form of government that hadn’t been seen before—a country that allowed the people to elect representatives, that guaranteed and protected basic rights and opened opportunities for anyone to serve and succeed.
In his new book, Our Lost Constitution, U.S. Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, looks at six essential provisions of the Constitution and how these points have changed from the original intent of the Founding Fathers over the last 228 years.
During a recent event hosted by The Heritage Foundation, Senator Lee explained that one of these changes is how the Constitution has become a judicial document, something for the courts, and especially the Supreme Court, to use.
“There is a big difference between constitutionality and a disinclination on the part of the Supreme Court to intervene and invalidate,” he said. “Those are not always the same question.”
One example the senator highlights in his book is the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizures and requires a search warrant to be issued by a judge before any search is conducted.
Senator Lee explained that this particular provision came about because of several searches of the home and papers taken from John Wilkes after he spoke out against the English government. Wilkes was eventually tried and jailed based on vague warrants and information and several false accusations based on those searches.
“The Fourth Amendment is one of the provisions...that has been weakened in recent years,” Senator Lee said.
He points to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 that has become the basis of the federal government claiming the power to read email without a warrant as long as it is over 180 days old.
“It’s kind of disturbing,” he writes. “It’s not something that any one of use would think is consistent with the concept of liberty or the idea of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment.”
“It is one thing to collect this information relative to persons outside the United States, the non-U.S. citizens and those people outside of our borders. It is quite another thing to gather that kind of data…on every single American citizen.”
Senator Lee believes this, and other aspects of the Constitution, need to be discussed often to ensure people are aware and talking about these important points. This is one of the reasons he wrote this book.
Our Lost Constitution also discusses the Origination Clause, the Legislative Powers Clause, the Establishment Clause, the Balance of Powers and the Second Amendment.
Senator Mike Lee was first elected in 2010. He is a former Supreme Court clerk and Assistant U.S. Attorney. His book is available on Amazon.com and from other retail outlets.
