https://www.miamivalleytoday.com/2020/06/08/davidson-working-across-aisle
June 8, 2020
To the Editor:
I like to see members of Congress working across the aisle to protect our constitutional rights.
According to his May 30 newsletter, Warren Davidson worked with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-19) to protect our Third and Fourth Amendment rights. They had proposed an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requiring intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant before searching our Internet browsing histories. Although they failed to get a vote on their amendment, I applaud Davidson and Lofgren for working together for our common good.
Our constitutional rights are certainly under threat. On May 25, four police officers deprived George Floyd of his 14th Amendment right to life and due process. On June 1, on orders from the White House, U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops pushed back people exercising their 1st Amendment right to peaceably assemble so our President could walk a few blocks for a photo op in front of a damaged church.
It’s not just government agents that threaten our constitutional rights. Rich corporate entities have been given the power to do the same. The Supreme Court, through a series of decisions over the course of many years, has granted them First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and 14th Amendment rights. This hijacking of our constitutional rights has allowed corporate entities to profit from and perpetuate systemic racism. They do this by influencing policies that promote practices such as the privatization of prisons and mass incarceration.
Nowadays, when it comes to battles over whose rights take priority, human beings are like Davids up against corporate Goliaths. The rock that will fell these Goliaths is a constitutional amendment.
Lofgren is already a co-sponsor of House Joint Resolution 48, which proposes a constitutional amendment that makes clear constitutional rights belong to human beings only.
Davidson deserves credit for working across the aisle to protect our Third and Fourth Amendment rights. Let’s encourage him to do more to protect our rights by working with Lofgren to make HJR 48 a reality.
Deb Hogshead
— Troy
