Upholding the Fourth Amendment

A few weeks ago I talked about the Fourth Amendment and the rights it provides to American citizens. The following week, I received a letter from a Nevada resident talking about his concerns with executive orders and what my position would be if such an order ever conflicted with the Fourth Amendment. I enjoy letters from citizens in the county, especially on topics like these!

Shortly after taking office as sheriff, I had several people ask me what my stance would be on Second Amendment rights and what I would do to protect them. My answer for this question is the same as my answer regarding the Second Amendment.

The first 10 amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights were drafted to preserve the sanctity of the United States Constitution. Our freedoms in this country are what define who we are, and being an American means being free. The Constitution is the standard that is supposed to be used to compare and measure all other laws. Abraham Lincoln said, "Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."

The county sheriff upholds the law of the land, pursues and apprehends violators of the law, and works to prevent crime in his county, but the sheriff also takes an oath to uphold the United States Constitution and that is what I plan to do. It was Patrick Henry who said, "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."

I fear the current direction our country is taking will lead us down a path that will no longer co-exist with what our Constitution stands for and what our Founding Fathers intended when they formed our great country. If we let our constitutional rights be trampled upon, we have given back everything that has been bought with blood for us. My oath to uphold the Constitution will be an oath I will keep until the day it is no longer my charge. For the sake of our children and the generations to follow, we must protect and uphold our Constitution. My answer to the letter I received asking what I would do if told by our government to outright ignore a constitutional guarantee is that I will always follow the Constitution and protect our freedoms.

"The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors. They purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood. It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men." -- Samuel Adams