Pennsylvania High Court Vacates State ConstitutionRule of Law collapses into Rule of Men The State of Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ruled that probable cause is all that is required to search an automobile during a traffic stop. The decision effectively ends the process of requiring a warrant to search a vehicle unless there is probable cause and exigent circumstances. Further the Pennsylvania High Courts decision overrides Pennsylvanias own Declaration of Rights in State Constitution Article I, Section 8. Article 8 stating: In Contrast to the Constitution for the United States, the Pennsylvania Declaration of Rights adds further protections stating people shall be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures in their persons, houses, papers and possessions. Further the Pennsylvania Constitution states no warrant shall be issued to search any place or seize any person or things without describing them as nearly as may be and without probable cause. Contrasting with the Constitution for the United States, Article 4 of the Bill Rights states : The Pennsylvania Constitution, Article 8 of the Declaration of Rights, is considered to provide even greater protections of privacy than the Constitution for the United States; Commonwealth v. Waltson, 724 A.2d 2 89, 292 (Pa. 1998) (citing [J-5-2013] 6 Commonwealth v. Edmunds, 586 A.2d 897-98 (Pa. 1991) [1] However the court later cited Federal Government rulings stating that exigent circumstances are automatically in place because an automobile or vehicle is mobile and therefore the evidence is easily and naturally moved when the vehicle is moved. Recent United States Supreme Court rulings now permit searching on probable cause alone, without exigent circumstances, even if the car were immobile or impounded. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. Justice Learned Hand Thus the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, following the federal lead, carefully crafted a legal word-salad argument building a bridge around the Pennsylvania Constitution and its Declaration of Rights in favor of the vastly pro-government and anti Individual rights positions of the Federal Government and its Supreme Court. In fact the Court stated : In concluding the Pennsylvania Supreme court noted : While saddling up with the Federal Government, the State of Pennsylvania has short circuited the spirit and intent of the Pennsylvania State Constitution and Declaration of Rights, while ensuring the ruling cannot be challenged in the Supreme Court of the United States. It is evident and abundantly clear, the Federal Governments egregious attack on the organic fourth Amendment of the Constitution for the United States is consistent with an agenda of curtailing individual liberties, while massively increasing Federal Government powers and control over We the People. This technique of vacating State Constitutional protections to become aligned with the United States Supreme Courts interpretation of the Constitution is a means by which State Supreme courts can diminish rights strongly protected under State Constitutions while seemingly appealing to a higher authority on rights and Liberty. However, as the history of the United States Federal Government has demonstrated, there is and has been a clear agenda to undermine the limits and restraints on the size and scope of the federal government at the cost of liberties and rights of Citizens of America since the Constitution was narrowly ratified in 1790. In Fact, since 1819 when Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the opinion in McCulloch v Maryland which turned the Constitution on its head[B], limited government scholars and advocates have realized the United States Constitution could not hold the power and growth of the Federal Government in chains. Governments growth is proportional to the powers collected from its Citizens and given the power to write law, and more specifically to interpret laws, define authority of government branches, agencies and set the line between the State and Federal Governments power, the Supreme Court has essentially unlimited power and influence over the American union of States. According to Bernard H. Siegan in The Supreme Courts Constitution: In Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court is clearly interested in supporting the Federal Governments egregious and growing intrusions into the lives and privacy of American Citizens. Recent revelations regarding the extent to which Americans are being spied upon using color of Law and ultra high tech technology, while ignoring, completely, the fourth amendment of the United States Constitution, is clearly an ominous sign of a serious balance of power shift away from privacy and the rights of individuals to be secure from government intrusion to a borg State having unlimited powers over the Citizen. George Orwell once imagined : The Pennsylvania decision was 60plus pages of building arguments to circumvent the Pennsylvania State Constitution: the Supreme Law of the land in Pennsylvania. Upon reading the decision, it is easy to see the court could have as easily and vehemently argued to support the Pennsylvania Constitution and the 225-year history of the Law and will of the people of Pennsylvania. In fact, Justice Debra McCloskey-Todd in a dissenting opinion wrote: According to Bernard H. Siegan in the Supreme Courts Constitution : Like Marshall, ignoring the intent of the founders as recorded in the record of the Constitutional Convention, in McCulloch v Maryland, the Pennsylvania Justices ignored the history of the State of Pennsylvanias strong support of the right of privacy and due process before search and seizure. Pennsylvanias Supreme Court has effectively done a great disservice to the Citizens of the State; Citizens depending on the Supreme Court to uphold the Constitution of the State against encroachments by the State itself. Pennsylvania joins many other States saddling up with the Federal Government and the U.S. Supreme Courts Constitution to dismantle the rights and privacy of the Citizens, while supporting the outrageous growth of totalitarian power of the Federal and State Governments. Money and Corruption Are ruining the land Crooked politicians Betray the working man, Pocketing the profits And treating us like sheep, And were tired of hearing promises That we know theyll never keep Ray Davies : The Kinks Several possible reasons exist for the State of Pennsylvania and other States to reduce the power of State Constitutions in the area of privacy and warrantless searches: Civil Forfeiture and the corruption of a private prison industrial complex. Pennsylvania is ranked among the worst in the Union for Civil Forfeiture law. According to the institute for Justice : The State of Pennsylvania makes a living on pirating property from captive State residents and, as of 2011, was in the top 10 states showing increasing prison populations year over year for the previous three years. Just googling Pennsylvania and Civil Forfeiture will produce pages of horror stories of Pennsylvania Pirates preying on property of the people. Pennsylvania is one of 28 states with so-called 3 strike laws mandating life sentences to people convicted of certain crimes more than two times. These 3-strike laws are horrendously unfair and often result in someone going to jail for life for some minor infraction of the law. For example, lets say a two-time felon is stopped on the highway and police using probable cause is searched and a few leaves of a marijuana plant are discovered this guy may be heading for life in jail for some plant he happens to have in his possession. Even more interesting is this fact: Pennsylvania is also listed with Arizona, South Carolina and South Dakota as having the largest increases in private prison populations with at least 17% more inmates in private facilities in 2011 than in 2010.[D] It is easy to see why Pennsylvania has a financial interest in being able to quickly and easily search vehicles and mobile property without the hassle of Constitutional precautions and due process. The possibilities for rampant corruption in a system where probable cause can be manufactured at the scene of a traffic stop or other encounter with law enforcement and then using Civil Forfeiture and possible State financial arrangements with a rising private prison industrial complex officials and public servants and private prison corporations all dine at the table of stolen loot of Pennsylvania State citizens. America has long ago lost the protections vaguely described in the United States Constitution, but discussed in detailed during the Constitutional Convention, and now States are falling like Dominoes in line with the U.S. Supreme Courts Constitution. The U.S. Constitution was created with poison pills against the use of the document for limiting the powers and scope of influence of the Federal Government. Created as a convenience organization charged with limited and clearly enumerated powers leaving all other powers to the States and the People, the Federal Government is now a predatory oligarchy under the control of a global cabal of hereditary wealthy elite intent on enslaving the entire human family on Earth. The founding fathers, sympathetic to the ennoblement, enlightenment, liberty and happiness of the common man, provided Americans with many ways to push back against the rise of tyranny in the Federal Government and the Union of States. States as independent Republics, are one of the ways Americans can stand against the rising tsunami of lawlessness and totalitarianism being exported by the Federal Government of the United States to the States. States can take serious the importance of the tenth amendment and using the wisdom passed on by those founding member States refusing at first to ratify the United States Constitution without both the tenth amendment and clarification statements given prior to signing the Constitution. The State of Virginia for example, reiterated that all powers granted under the Constitution are derived from the people of the States and States organizing around the words of the founders during Constitutional debates in Philadelphia beginning in 1787 as recorded in the Federalist Papers, and other records of the Convention, can find strength and justification for nullifying Federal Laws and resuming the powers only delegated to the Federal Government which are have now been perverted to their injury. Other ways include impeaching Supreme Court Justices, it has only been done once on the national level and at least once at the State Supreme Court Level however, as of this writing, proceedings in Oklahoma are in progress to impeach five Supreme Court Justices for granting a stay of execution in a particularly gruesome murder case involving children. [E] If Oklahoma can impeach five Supreme Court Justices for just a stay of execution, Pennsylvanians can impeach six for circumventing the established law of the State for two hundred years. Finally, it may be also be possible to make void Constitutional infringements made by Supreme Court Justices when if it can be shown they are operating illegally without having property taken and affirmed their oath to the Constitution. Private Attorney General, author, inventor and defender of the US Constitution, Paul Andrew Mitchell has shown countless numbers of court officials, attorneys, United States Supreme Court Justices and Clerks of the various courts have not properly affirmed their oath to the United States Constitution and are operating as impostors. Power to the People, Right On John Lennon America is an idea, a beautiful and powerful example of what can be done when people are free to speak, free to act, interact, share, learn, contribute and self organize in a natural way. America has been a testimony to limited government, a conclusive experiment in what can be done when people have property rights, rule of law and free markets and minds. But, Americas time in the Sun has passed as cartels, monopoly capitalists using regulatory capture, legislative bribery, unconstitutional executive orders, currency and credit scams plus Supreme Court manipulation have perverted America into something quite ordinary; America is now no more than a corrupt, collectivist, Oligarchy floundering in a sea of mediocrity. Only by aggressively acting to take back the powers of the Sovereign States and the powers of the People can any of the coming calamity and misery be avoided. The time has come to reread the Declaration of Independence and for Citizens of States with Constitutions like Pennsylvania that declare in Article I, section 2 : To alter, reform or abolish their government and begin again. [A] http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Constitution.html [1] http://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Supreme/out/J-5-2013oajc%20-%201017924602181959.pdf?cb=1 General References Asset Forfeiture: http://walker-foundation.org/Files/walker/2011/AFjournalofcriminaljustice.pdf http://lfb.org/the-american-nightmare-that-is-civil-asset-forfeiture/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2014/03/12/cops-use-traffic-stops-to-seize-millions-from-drivers-never-charged-with-a-crime/ Recently by Jack Mullen: Jack Mullen has been a businessman for more than 25 years, owning 3 radio stations, several technology based companies and a resource development company 