Andromeda

The grave risks of spies in America -- communicating with and working for foreigners -- doing everything they can to destroy this country -- is a danger so frightening, so great, and, most importantly, so new and so unheard-of, that Bush's warrantless spying is surely justified -- no: absolutely necessary.

Certainly, at the time the Fourth Amendment was demanded by the States, the people of the United States had no conception of the kind of danger such spies pose, they were far too foolish and naive to even grasp what we face today, and if they knew such horrors, fears, terrors as we know, they would have agreed that Americans could be spied on without probable cause.

Imagine, for example, if they had lived in a fledgling country, whose very existence was in doubt from day to day, and their enemies lived among them:

Loyalists came from all social, ethnic and economic classes of society, and were therefore able to mingle and interact easily in the countryside, under the guise of being Rebels themselves.

In addition to acting as spies, several prominent Loyalists ran intelligence networks. Cortland Skinner, the commander of the New Jersey Volunteers, directed an elaborate spy web in New Jersey from his headquarters on Staten Island.

If only the people who insisted on the Fourth Amendment had known such awful fear, uncertainty and dread as we have today, having a tiny percentage of the country consisting of people determined to destroy that country:

Loyalists made up at least one fourth of Americans. When a Loyalist spy sent a written warning of the imminent American attack, the Hessian in charge at Trenton tucked the note in his vest pocket and continued playing cards.

(Sorry, the last part of that quote was from the 9-11 Commission Report -- it's supposed to say "Bush" instead of "Hessian.") Certainly, there would be no Fourth Amendment at all if having the enemy in their midst had been "commonplace" during the time the Bill of Rights was adopted:

Espionage and counterespionage were as commonplace during the 18th century as they were in the 20th century during the Cold War. During the Revolutionary War, spies for both England and America obtained and transmitted information about troop movement, supplies, fortifications, and political maneuvers. Loyalists in America (or Tories as they were often called) were happy to provide secret information to the Crown....

The dangers Americans face to day are nothing like those the country faced at its founding. Clearly, the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement can be ignored.