It's a great document. That it has survived the test of time attests to its greatness. But now we have activist judges on the Right trying to make an end run around the United States Constitution in order to implement the neocon agenda.

There are a number of Constitutional issues at play, including the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act, which guts the Fourth Amendment and could be rendered permanent by Congress and the President, leaving the Supreme Court as our only hope for redress. The amendment reads, in part: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."

The argument of the neocons is that privacy must be sacrificed to preserve security. However, to paraphrase Ben Franklin, those who would trade their civil liberties for security deserve neither.

George W. Bush is betting that his appointment of conservative judges to the Supreme Court will seal the fate of the Fourth Amendment (and other safeguards enshrined in the Constitution).

I am hoping the judges will leave this great document intact.

Larry Flynt
Publisher,
HUSTLER Magazine