As your typical, whiny, middle-class American teenager, I would obviously be inclined to argue that we as Americans have too few rights and are oppressed by the government, the man, the fuzz, or whatever other colloquialism kids these days use. But the fact of the matter is that actually that we may have been given a few too many rights. Its and ideal that may sound unusual at first glance, but upon delving further into the matter, the ridiculous seems to be running rampant within society, as is evidenced generally by the court cases that come to follow.

The Westboro Baptist Church has been gaining quite a bit of press within the past several years, most notably for their protesting at the funerals of fallen military soldiers. As a congregation, the Westboro Baptist Church spreads a message of hatred towards those peoples and events which do not follow their strict guidelines, including (but not limited to):

• Barack Obama
• Italy
• The KKK
• Jews
• Australia
• Homosexuals 
• People that allow others to be homosexual
• Muslims
• Mormons

And, though they spread messages of hate towards just about every group of people other than themselves, they are protected under their first amendment rights to do so. They are allowed to go to funerals and disturb those grieving, they are allowed to teach their message to the future generation, because the Constitution protects them.

And then there's the case of the "wrongful" tracking. A man was believed to be involved with drug trafficking, so a trace was placed on his car and he was closely monitored and followed. As it would happen, he in fact was involved in illegal substances, and the police arrested him. He was released after a short time, however, because the police officer monitoring him hadn't been given proper clearance to do so, and was therefore imposing on his Constitutional rights. 

Things like that happen all the time. There were tons of cases involving illegal searches and probable cause, spanning from searching someones house for bodies to looking through a high school girl's purse. If nothing was found, then the response from the courts would be sensible. But, for example, in the case of the girl's purse, they found drugs, a pipe, and a wad of money, which suggested that she had intent to distribute. Probable cause is important, but when it bears those kinds of results, maybe we ought take a step back.