1. THIS MORNING:
1. Read the notes on your own.
2. Political capacity
3. Generalizations about political rights
4. Film: "Search and Seizure"

1. POLITICAL CAPACITY:
1. Read these notes on your own. We will return to the notion of political capacity again and again.
2. Political capacity: political system can identify and deal with, if not solve, collective problems expeditiously and effectively.



2. GENERAL PROPOSITIONS ABOUT RIGHTS:
1. Read these comments on your own. We will discuss some Friday and during the remainder of the semester.
2. Comment: foreigners often remark about America's commitment to rights; its willingness to protect them even at the expense of the common good.
1. An example: gun control?
3. Proposition: rights inevitably conflict with at least one of democracy's main assumptions, majority rule.
4. The very idea of a "right" implies disagreement over its meaning and range of application.
1. After all, discussion of a right implies a claim one sort or another on someone or some agency.
5. Proposition: Each generation must redefine and reestablish rights:
1. Rights are never permanent but must be won again and again and again.
6. 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.
1. Think about some of the people in the film. Although they may be unsavory, their behavior forces society to think about how far rights should be extended.
2. Another example: have you been paying attention to the debate about the film, "The People Versus Larry Flynt?"
7. Two issues arise when discussing political liberties.
1. First how do we reconcile individual rights with majority preferences?
1. For example, does a majority have the proper or just power to outlaw certain kinds of speech (e.g., pornography)?
2. Second, since statements about rights are inherently and inevitably ambiguous, how do we interpret them?
8. 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.
1. Isn't this one of the points raised in discussions of O. J. Simpson's trial?



3. SEARCH AND SEIZURE:
1. Some of these are the issues raised by the documentary, "Search and Seizure."
1. Keep main terms in mind.
1. What were the colonial merchants trying to hide?
2. What is a "writ of general assistance?"
3. What is the "exclusionary rule?"
4. "The constable blundered"
5. Note the important court decisions, especially Mapp v. Ohio.
1. A copy is available at FedWorld's Supreme Court Decisionshome page
2. 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?



4. NEXT TIME:
1. Political capacity and the federal budget, deficits, and the national debt.
2. Reading:
1. Squire and others, Dynamics of Democracy, Chapter 4, pages 117 to 118; note especially the material on the Fourth Amendment
1. For the Amendment's text see page 56 or use any of the many, many copies on the internet such as
• Cornell University Law

1. To get ahead: Squire and others, Dynamics of Democracy, Chapter 16, for reference. (Look at Figures 16.1 and 16.2)

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