• THIS MORNING:
• Interpreting rights
• Film: Search and Seizure

• GENERAL PROPOSITIONS ABOUT RIGHTS:
• Read these comments on your own. We will discuss some next Monday and during the remainder of the semester.
• Comment: foreigners often remark about America's commitment to rights; its willingness to protect them even at the expense of the common good.
• An example: gun control?
• Proposition: rights inevitably conflict with at least one of democracy's main assumptions, majority rule.
• The very idea of a "right" implies disagreement over its meaning and range of application.
• After all, discussion of a right implies a claim one sort or another on someone or some agency.
• Proposition: Each generation must redefine and reestablish rights:
• Rights are never permanent but must be won again and again and again.
• Proposition: dissidents, criminals, malcontents, and the like serve the interests of ordinary law-abiding citizens. Why? Because they constantly force the political system to think about and reaffirm its commitment to freedoms. Hence, the "dregs" of society--the people we sometimes detest the most--are the very ones who do the most to help preserve liberty. After all, they force public authorities to play by the rules and these rules make us all safer.
• Think about some of the people in today's film. Although they may be unsavory, their behavior forces society to think about how far rights should be extended.
• Another example: Larry Flynt, Hustler, and obsenity
• He was the subject of a film "The People Versus Larry Flint."
• Two issues arise when discussing political liberties.
• First how do we reconcile individual rights with majority preferences?
• For example, does a majority have the proper or just power to outlaw certain kinds of speech (e.g., pornography)?
• Second, since statements about rights are inherently and inevitably ambiguous, how do we interpret them?
• Another point: people in different social and economic strata are better able to assert and take advantage of rights than are those in different locations.
• Isn't this one of the points raised in discussions of O. J. Simpson's trial?
• SEARCH AND SEIZURE:
• Some of these are the issues raised by the documentary, "Search and Seizure."
• Film deals with the Fourth Amendment.
• For the text see Patterson, Appendix page 18 or this hypertext version of the
• Foruth Amendement
• Also, Patterson, We the People, Chapter 4.
• Keep main terms in mind.
• What were the colonial merchants trying to hide?
• What is a "writ of general assistance?"
• Selective incorporation (Patterson, pages 107, 117 to 123).
• What is the "exclusionary rule?"
• Patterson, pages 120 to 122.
• "The constable blundered"
• Note the important court decisions, especially Mapp v. Ohio.
• A copy is available at: www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/index.htm
• Equally important, what do you think about the exclusionary rule? Does it hinder the police too much? Should it be kept as it is or limited?



• NEXT TIME:
• Political Culture: General Welfare Liberalism
• Reading:
• Patterson, We the People, Chapter 4.
• Read for general understanding and pay attention to the material on the Fourth Amendment (search and seizures) as indicated above.
• Optional: for a collection of Supreme Court cases dealing with the Fourth Amendment click here. and click on F and then find the Fourth amendment.
• Optional: for an interesting discussion of the Fourth Amendment, privacy, and the internet click here.

Go to Notes page

Go to American Political System page

Go to H. T. Reynolds page