self-reference

This perspective really bothers me— I’m sure I’m not the only one. It seems to presume that the current state of affairs, where the police lack some ability to access some of the evidence which is in principle available, is a novel situation demanding of a novel response.

But, like, it’s not like the original ratifiers of the Bill of Rights didn’t understand what they were doing. They _knew_ that by outlawing common law enforcement practices like arbitrary searches and coerced confessions, they would be giving up some of their ability to “punish” certain types of “criminals”. They got that it meant they couldn’t listen in on a man’s conversation with God. That’s the deal they struck to try to form a country governed by laws, not by men.

It really seems like it’s not such a new situation, after all; we just have new values.