Congress, Obama Violate ‘Constitutional Law 101’

Within the over 800 pages of legalese and the recent legislation in the interest of “saving” the U.S. economy by spending over 1 trillion dollars with interest (that’s a million millions) in order to redistribute the wealth in this country to the federal government’s sovereign subjects and itself (since a great deal of the included monies were for redecorating the National Mall after the inaugural coronation, and also for federal government technology upgrades) was a provisions that should outrage each and every American in this country in it’s broad stroke provisions and basic civil rights violation far worse than even President’ Bush’s “Patriot Act.”

And that is the establishment of a National Healthcare Database of the medical records for each and every American in this country, to be facilitated by Bill Gate’s Microsoft, and most of the major U.S. universities which will be receiving grant monies and fellowships in order to assist with this monumental project and Bill of Rights violation.

This provision prior to enacted was only briefly mentioned in some of the lesser know news sources, and being sold as “creating more jobs” in the technology field, and to facilitate the sharing of medical records between medical providers in order that mistakes may be eliminated and thus potentially save people’s lives. I, of course, would argue that such a provision has much more negative consequences than positive, and that while it will afford Bill Gates and Microsoft huge profits, no real “new” jobs in the short term since it appears that the focus is to utilize primarily university students on government grants to input the data.

In the long term it will actually result in the loss of jobs in small businesses and companies which have been marketing and providing medical professionals with software programs in order to computerize records for sharing within the medical community as not “public” but “private” records. It appears more an attempt for Microsoft to corner the market now on health record software in this public/private partnership in addition to their massive profits on their Windows technology itself.

But more importantly, this is nothing more than a “back door” method of violating American’s privacy rights, as guaranteed in Article IV the Bill of Rights:

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

In case after case, the courts have held that a citizen’s personal medical records belong to the patient primarily and his treating physician. For the government to interject itself in “ownership” of those records is a fundamental breach of the right to privacy addressed in Constitution 101 classes throughout most law schools in this nation. Apparently either Mr. Obama missed those classes while attending Harvard or our educational system itself is worse off than many have concluded. However, the members of Congress themselves have highly paid legal advisors that are also paid to “advise” Congressional members with respect to Constitutional issues, so cannot believe this breach was a mere accidental oversight, but must have been one of those intentional acts or omissions to continue to abuse the citizenry and their rights.

Actually, there is simply no excuse for it, since the Constitution itself was written so that the average citizen could understand it’s provisions and just why those rights were fundamentally the reason for the original delay in the signing, the insistence of the founders for the first ten amendments in order to curtail any potential abuse this “republican” of government might make over the “inalienable” rights of the people. All those provisions are written in clear, simple language – since the founder’s intent was in order that the people for whom the Constitution was written could understand it, unlike 800 page stimulus package legislation, or that other Constitutional abridgment – 1,000 page misnamed “Patriot” Acts.

At this time, the ACLU and many in the medical and health care community are simply taking umbrage that enough “protective” legislation was not included in order to limit it’s impact in simply providing for consent and disclosure provisions of the public nature of these records, which initially could be shared with over 600,000 medical providers, and any public employee of the Department of Health and Human Services at the touch of a button.

The wording is so “loosey goosey” there is a very real likelihood that these records could also then be released to also insurers, employers, even lawyers in medical malpractice suits on unrelated medical claims, or a host of others on a “need to know” basis.

The aforementioned organizations have not taken strong stands in any manner whatsoever on the actual civil rights violation which it is and was at it’s inclusion – and since it was included with what is no more than an actual appropriations bill and not a separate bill in and of itself, it’s undeniable ramifications and even legality was clearly intended to be minimized and kept from general public knowledge until after the fact.

My question: Where was the ACLU, which supposed bastion of the protection of American civil rights during the bill process? Most likely licking their lips over their future profits on such egregious legislation. Were they instead hard at work on the next case involving the “civil rights” of criminal foreigners?

And actually the most diabolical inclusion in there is also the provision for the colleges and universities to receive grant monies and fellowships in order to assist in this civil rights violation. In other words, while you are paying that $10,000 or more per year college tuition, your child majoring in the technology field will be working for the government for free in order to violate your civil rights.

I suppose to President Obama and this Congress, this is an example of “volunteerism” and “helping your country out,” by paying for your own eventual abuse and privacy invasion.

Even Orwell didn’t imagine such a scenario in his nightmare, “1984.”