GWOT V - Constitution Club II

"The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it."
- Fitzgerald translation of Quatrains 31 and 54

A California high school.

A 'Constitution Club' evening meeting.

A bored teacher acting as host for a known American operative teaching American civics to a hostile California audience.

A few embedded junior agents - all high school students themselves - diligently filing their reports, occasionally glanced over by a bored Collections junior analyst.

Just a little bit too late.

###

"Today we are going to further explore the concepts of human rights versus civil rights."

An eager hand, from the first row.

"Isn't it true that the Constitution doesn't actually protect any right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness?"

"That's from the Declaration of Independence. So it is part of the tradition but not actually part of the Constitution."

"So where do we find a right to merely exist, to be alive?"

"The Fourth Amendment."

"How so? It talks about warrants and seizures."

"'The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,' reads the start of the 4th. The part sometimes overlooked is that 'secure in persons'. In other words, the government can't just arrest you and take you away."

"Bullshit! That's exactly what Homeland did!"

"That is, in fact, exactly what Homeland did. Their argument would be that the seizure - of people an immediate threat to the United States - was 'reasonable.' That leads down the 'reasonable person' path in common law."

"So that right doesn't actually exist. The person who decides what is reasonable is the Homeland trooper making the arrest!"

"That leads directly to why we have and why we need courts. A third party to determine reasonableness. And that third party is not really the courts, but a jury of your peers. That's the Fifth Amendment, 'unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.'"

"Um, I see here a comment about getting grand juries to indict ham sandwiches."

"As for the Fifth Amendment, 'nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.'"

"Again, a comment about 'Do Process' as in turning a meat grinder. That's a process. You fall in, you get ground up. Process requirement met."

"What is that you are looking at?"

"An essay I found on TacNet. A savage critique of the Bill of Rights, by some military lawyer at Alviso."

"The only military lawyers at Alviso were the defense team..." he started.

"This was written by one of the judges."

"Oh."

A long pause, as those with devices did searches and those without were passed some printed pages, or other people's devices.

Only one woman did not participate in the search. She glared, and clung to her small purse as if it were her only hope.

###

"I. 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."

We should have started with putting a period after 'Congress shall make no law' and called it a day.

As long as there are tests in school, there will be prayer in school as well.

Freedom of should be freedom from. Religion is best treated like a penis - keep tucked away, keep well away from children, do not wave it around in public and especially never shove it down an unwilling throat or into any other orifice. Especially a womb!

Freedom of speech is not freedom of consequences from that speech.

The press is a necessary evil, and should enjoy no rights of its own, deriving its rights only from the right of the public to be fully informed.

Peaceful assembly is in the eye of the beholder. A Dungeons and Dragons (TM) beholder, with paralysis ray and vivisection fangs. If protest is a crime, there is no such thing as a peaceful assembly. But no truly peaceful assembly is with pitchforks and torches either.

Pray, King, may I have permission to complain? No, you may not. Well, shit.

"II. 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."

A lingerie clad hooker, being necessary to some quiet in the pants, the right of women to own and wear panties, shall not include fringed panties.

Makes more sense than the militia interpretation. If only soldiers can have guns, the people can't. I mean, duh.

"III. No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law."

Let them eat cake! Or put them in hotels. The most useless right ever.

###

"That's pretty ... savage."

"A savage pamphlet for a savage time. Over four thousand executions. It does not get better."

###

"IV. 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."

Homeland closed the courts. Don't need a warrant. No one to issue, no one to adjudicate it.

Reasonable gets back to that beholder eye again.

"V. 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 offence 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."

Inter arma enim silent leges.

When tanks roar, mere human voices are drowned out.

Except during war means a permanent state of endless war. A boot stamping on a human face forever, thanks George Orwell.

'Do Process' as in turning a meat grinder. That's a process. You fall in, you get ground up. Process requirement met.

"VI. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."

And a lollipop. You can suck on a lollipop after your jaw is broken and your teeth punched out. All those others depend on a sense of fair play.

A Homeland hearing was an officer, often in the field, who certainly gave his verdict with speed and in public.

BLAM!

"VII. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."

Again, no Courts, no juries. Force walks naked, dressed only in a flag and the reddish-black blood of its victims.

OK, fine, have a jury. Shall we use a jury of grinning murderers? Because we can't use a jury of murdered victims. Because they're dead and we have no mediums nor seances nor Ouija boards to get their opinions.

Maybe a jury of pigeons. They can indict ham sandwiches and coo their approvals, and be a tasty snack for the dogs afterwards.

"VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

So we should levy kind and usual punishments instead? Taxes?

More beholder level irony. What is excessive? A bail you cannot afford? A house you cannot buy, a sentence you cannot live long enough to complete?

Punishments for crime are justifications for enslavement.

"IX. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

The most sweeping slight of hand ever committed in political science.

What rights retained by the people? The right to flee? The right to suffer? To choose between murder by troopers after capture and lawful execution for fleeing troops under the laws of land warfare? The right to reproduce? Or to fuck and not reproduce?

That 'pursuit of happiness' ... that you can't take away even if you cut off someone's arms and legs and rename them Mat? Or then dunk them in a hot tub and call them Stew?

"X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

The people have no mechanism to protect their rights. Take away their right to protest under the 1st, take their weapons under the 2nd, take their bodies under the 4th and 5th, torture them under the 8th... and whether they die screaming in state prison or a Federal institution matters not at all.

The Bill of Rights is a package deal. Start unthreading it and like a sweater, it falls apart into useless strands.

###

"Let's take a short break."

Unusually, there was some food left on the buffet table. That was not a good sign.

"How should we tackle this?"

"What do you mean 'we', kemosabe?" retorted the teacher. "You opened this can of worms, you get to mix in the sauce."

###

"Welcome back. Let's discuss the idea of a jury. Are we, assembled, a jury?"

###

Sidebar conversations. Impassioned hand waving. Some shouting.

And no agreement. Exhaustion and a determination to try again next week.

Until he reached the door, with his back to most of the crowd and particularly to the one woman who had held her silence all that evening.

An unsteady hand with painted nails, holding a pistol.

Strictly forbidden in schools.

Students rushed forward, except those caught flat footed or in shock.

Too late.

She dropped the pistol as they grappled with her and held her against the wall.

That did nothing to affect the consequences of the one shot she had fired.

Her single contribution to the debate, which her victim could not answer or even dispute. Ever.

Someone set off the wall alarm, a lifetime too late.

###

"A spontaneous exclamation, also sometimes called an excited utterance, is a statement made in the midst of a startling event, with no opportunity for premeditation or deliberation. It is generally admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule in a court of law."

###

"There's my speech! There's my arms! There's my security of person! And there's YOUR fucking due process!" she screamed.

Her victim did not hear her, having been deprived of the ability to do so, by having his brains spilled on a broad stretch of the walkway just outside the classroom door.

The medics did their duty by putting a yellow highway blanket over the corpse.

The police came and took her away, to answer for her crime to a jury of her peers.

Under post-Rebellion California law, she would either hang by the neck until dead, or be executed by gunfire. Clearly she had known and accepted this the minute she carried the purse, with its unlawful concealable handgun, into the school.

The death of a hated American was worth that price to her.

She might exercise her right in court to state the abuses she had endured, the crimes she had witnessed, the resulting PTSD and mental health challenges that had contributed to her atrocious act.

Against, under post-Rebellion California law, none of that would lend an iota of mercy to her fate.

The students stayed in the classroom, not just as material witnesses who needed to be processed, but out of simple shock.

The teacher conferred with the school security officer and the principal. There was really nothing to be done.

Finally the teacher went to the students.

"I need a vote. A simple show of hands. If you vote in favor, I will continue our discussion where it was so rudely interrupted next week. Otherwise I will disband this club."

Reluctantly, slowly, with glances and grimaces, every hand in the room went up.

"We will start next week, with ..." he paused, "the rights of the accused."