Stripping Away Our Constitutional Rights
Following the ratification of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution to provide Americans with specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights that were not expressly granted in the body of the Constitution. While James Madison, the primary author of both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, did not believe a Bill of Rights was necessary to secure these freedoms, he did believe that it would help promote the public understanding and knowledge of individual liberty, which would help citizens in the task of defending their liberties.
While Madison correctly believed that the safeguard of individual liberty must lie with the people themselves, I doubt he envisioned that a time would come when his fellow Virginians would be largely stripped of FOUR of these liberties within his cherished Commonwealth.
Alas, The Time Is NOW
Sadly, it’s true, the left leaning members of the Virginia General Assembly have taken aim – figuratively speaking of course, but we will get to that point in a minute – at the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by passing or attempting to pass legislation that would negate these rights. And, here’s how it went down.
The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Two identical bills were introduced by Delegate Mark Sickles (HB 1663) and Senator Adam Ebbin (SB 868) that target people of faith, including churches, religious schools, and nonprofit ministries by making them “places of public accommodation” and dictating their operational and employment decisions, which will impact the fundamental tenets of their faith with particular emphasis on the concepts of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (SOGI). There will no doubt be vast repercussions if these bills pass, including private lawsuits and state-initiated investigations and civil actions against any faith-based entity who fails to comply with the LGBTQ philosophy du jour by creating new causes of action, implementing massive fines, forcing payment of fees for opposing counsel, and allowing unlimited compensatory and up to $350K punitive damages. This could quickly bankrupt most religious nonprofit organizations.
HB 1049 introduced by Delegate Mark Levine, adds special SOGI protections into roughly 80 sections of the Virginia Code, including private employment practices, public accommodations, housing, and state contracting requirements, yet doesn’t add any exemptions or protections for religious liberty, including churches, schools, and nonprofit ministries. (A recent amendment to the bill allows for special exceptions to be granted to some religious groups that contract with the state to provide essential services – but who know if the administrative agency will actually grant that…)
In January, SB 245 was introduced by Delegate Scott Surovell, which would prevent parents from seeking counseling for their children who may be struggling with their sexual identity or experiencing unwanted same-sex attractions. Under this bill, if any licensed health professionals, including counselors, psychologists, physicians, etc., provide talk therapy for that purpose to these minors, they risk having their license taken away, thereby jeopardizing both their careers and livelihood. Interestingly, though, this bill would allow licensed professionals to provide “acceptance, support, and understanding” to a minor undergoing “gender transition” or exploring unnatural sexual desires. Not only does this prevent licensed counselors from providing talk therapy to struggling minors to help them overcome unwanted same-sex desires or gender dysphoria, but it’s part of a larger concerted effort to silence all religious professionals who are licensed by the state.
The Second Amendment: A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
Due to their experience with the British, the Founding Fathers recognized that any government with the authority to control its citizen’s access to firearms could disarm those citizens. Despite disagreements between the federalists and anti-federalists during the ratification process, there were never conflicting opinions over whether the American people had a right to keep and bear arms. Today, however, the members of Virginia’s General Assembly have taken a completely different stance on what has historically been considered a basic right in the Old Dominion. This is evidenced by the flurry of new legislation introduced this Session to curtail the rights of Virginia gun owners.
One the most notable measures to be proffered was HB 961, introduced by Delegates Mark Levine and Dan Helmer, both Northern Virginia Democrats. If passed, this bill would outlaw the future sales of so-called assault weapons, including popular firearm models such as the AR-15, and force gun owners to turn in certain magazines or face criminal penalties -- even jail time. Fortunately, this draconian measure to infringe on the rights of law-abiding Virginians without measurably improving public safety in any manner died in the Senate Judiciary Committee after it had already passed the House. Hold your applause, though, because the Left has promised that it will be reintroduced in the 2021 session.
To add insult to injury, the Senate Judiciary Committee recently advanced 8 Democrat backed gun control bills along party-line. These bills include universal background checks, allowing localities to ban guns in public places, a one-handgun per month limit, and eliminating an online option for getting a concealed handgun permit. They will now head to the full Senate, then both houses will need to agree on any changes before they can go to the Governor’s desk for a certain signature. Not only are these bills a violation of the U.S. Constitution, but they also violate the constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Specifically, Article I, Section 13 states:
“That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe self defense of a free state, therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.”
It couldn’t be any clearer, not only did America’s Founders recognize the right of the people to keep and bear arms, but so did Virginia’s Founders.
The Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
Fifth Amendment: No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
Senate Democrats introduced and advanced SB 240 from Senator George Barker – also known as the “Red Flag Law.” This legislation creates a process for attorneys and law enforcement to file emergency orders prohibiting a person from purchasing, possessing, or transferring a firearm if they pose “a substantial risk of injury to himself or others.” This measure is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, which affirms that we are to be secure in our property from unreasonable searches and seizures, and this right cannot be violated without a warrant being issued upon probable cause that is supported by Oath or Affirmation. Nowhere in this legislation is there any requirement that there be an examination by a licensed physician or therapist first.
The argument the Left offers is that the law is in full compliance with the Constitutional requirement of due process because a warrant has been obtained. However, what they are missing is that under these laws, anyone can make a claim that a person is a threat to himself or others, and this does not in any way, shape, or form constitute probable cause for a warrant to be issued. Consequently, it violates the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Furthermore, these types of laws increase the power of the government, which runs counter to the original intent of our Founding Fathers who wanted the power of the government to be limited. In fact, Red Flag Laws put the power of determining who might be a potential danger directly into the hands of government agencies, the police, and the courts. The irony here is it that this is the same government that, as previously noted, wants to limit our ability to speak out against it. Let that sink in for just a minute…
The question many of us have asked ourselves is, “Why is the left so intent on taking away the very freedoms that make America so great?” In my opinion, the answer can be found in the wise words of American philosopher Max Eastman who, when trying to explain the threat posed by implementing socialist policies in America, described the liberal left as, “Yearning to do good and obsessed by the power of the state to do it, relieved by this power of their age-old feeling of futility, they are destroying in the name of social welfare the foundations of freedom.”
