Constitution Free Zone - ACLU Map

[ZENemy]

Is this REAL? I mean is it actually defined somewhere that these are true constitution free zones?


http://www.aclu.org/constitution-free-zone-map

http://www.aclu.org/constitution-free-zone-map#OR

[Nirvikalpa]

% Living in Constitution-Free-Zone in NJ: 100%

Well, that explains it.

[VBRonPaulFan]

Is this REAL? I mean is it actually defined somewhere that these are true constitution free zones?


http://www.aclu.org/constitution-free-zone-map

http://www.aclu.org/constitution-free-zone-map#OR

what does 'constitution-free zone' even mean? they don't define what that means anywhere on the page that I can see.

[Acala]

what does 'constitution-free zone' even mean? they don't define what that means anywhere on the page that I can see.

If you follow the link it refers to the government's position that it can make random stops within 100 miles of the border as part of its job of policing the borders.

[LibForestPaul]

i.e. show us your papers. 100 miles inland = Soviet Russia, 101 miles inland = Fascist America.

[KCIndy]

I don't always agree with the ACLU. Frankly, I think some of their efforts are misguided.

But on the "Constitution-Free Zone" they are bang-on right. In brief, their complaint is the fact that law enforcement and Border Patrol officers have been blatantly violating the rights of citizens through unconstitutional stops and searches. The U.S. courts, tragically, have decided these egregious violations are perfectly acceptable when they take place within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

Here's a more detailed explanation from the ACLU website:

http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/fact-sheet-us-constitution-free-zone


Normally under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the American people are not generally subject to random and arbitrary stops and searches.

The border, however, has always been an exception. There, the longstanding view is that the normal rules do not apply. For example the authorities do not need a warrant or probable cause to conduct a “routine search.”

But what is “the border”? According to the government, it is a 100-mile wide strip that wraps around the “external boundary” of the United States.

As a result of this claimed authority, individuals who are far away from the border, American citizens traveling from one place in America to another, are being stopped and harassed in ways that our Constitution does not permit.

Border Patrol has been setting up checkpoints inland — on highways in states such as California, Texas and Arizona, and at ferry terminals in Washington State. Typically, the agents ask drivers and passengers about their citizenship. Unfortunately, our courts so far have permitted these kinds of checkpoints – legally speaking, they are “administrative” stops that are permitted only for the specific purpose of protecting the nation’s borders. They cannot become general drug-search or other law enforcement efforts.

However, these stops by Border Patrol agents are not remaining confined to that border security purpose. On the roads of California and elsewhere in the nation – places far removed from the actual border – agents are stopping, interrogating, and searching Americans on an everyday basis with absolutely no suspicion of wrongdoing.

The bottom line is that the extraordinary authorities that the government possesses at the border are spilling into regular American streets.

Story continues...

[Feeding the Abscess]

Anti-immigrant and closed border members of the liberty movement:

By supporting anti-immigration and closed border policies, this is what you have helped bring about.