On June 8, 1789, James Madison, the congressman representing Virginia’s 5th District, rose to speak in a session of the First Congress and advocated passage of the slate of amendments to the Constitution to be known to history as the Bill of Rights. On December 15, 1791, the requisite number of states (three-quarters, or nine states) ratified the amendments and thus the Bill of Rights became the constitutional law of the land.

On December 15, 2012, we celebrated the 221st anniversary of the birth of the Bill of Rights.

If we continue along our current trajectory, however, we may soon begin celebrating the anniversary of the death of those same slate of protections of our God-given civil liberties.

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for example, all but obliterates the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, as well as threatening the First Amendment by exposing journalists to the indefinite detention provisions of the act if they are assumed to be helping suspected terrorists by way of stories they publish.

Anyone suspected by the president of aligning himself with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or “associated forces,” may be arrested by the military and confined in a federal prison until the end of the “War on Terror.” These suspects will be denied due process all in the name of national security.

The surveillance state being built by the federal government is rapidly growing in size and sophistication, as The New American chronicles almost every day.

For example, in a recent story we reported how regulations recently signed into effect by Attorney General Eric Holder allow the National Counterterroism Center (NCTC) to monitor records of citizens for any potential criminal activity, without a warrant and without suspicion.

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