Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All of these inalienable rights have been fought for by Americans since Thomas Jefferson wrote those very words in the Declaration of Independence. All throughout history, from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, from Women’s Suffrage to the Civil Rights Movement, Americans have always been on the frontlines of fighting for, and defending, the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But, in recent times, those words from Thomas Jefferson have been ignored, as well as the words from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as governmental officials and those running for office have swept these words and documents under the rug.

It all began with the passage of the Patriot Act in 2001, which gave the National Security Agency (NSA) unprecedented power to spy on each and every American’s data. This is a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which ensures the right to privacy to all Americans, unless there is a warrant or probable cause for search. Fast forward to today, this law that was supposed to stop terrorism in its tracks has stopped no terrorist attacks. In fact, look to the recent terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, California, where the attackers planned the entire attack online. Where was the NSA on this one? Wasting their time with the task of spying on law abiding citizens. Not only is this ineffective, it’s unconstitutional.

Now, today, more and more unconstitutional proposals have been brought to debate in order to create a false sense of security. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has proposed a ban on Muslims coming into the U.S., despite the fact that there’s a little thing called the First Amendment that strictly opposes such a proposal on the basis of the freedom of religion. Also, Trump’s main contender, Sen. Ted Cruz, has violated two constitutional amendments with his recent proposal to impose stricter patrolling by law enforcement of Muslim neighborhoods, which not only violates the freedom of religion in the First Amendment because its discriminating against people of a specific religion, but it’s also a violation of the Fourth Amendment because it violates a person’s right to be free of investigation without a warrant or probable cause. What happened to the constitutional values that this country was built on?

Obviously, terrorism is a very real threat in today’s society. With the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) beginning to lose ground in the Middle East, with major losses of Palmyra, Syria and Ramadi, Iraq, they’re looking to spread their reign of terror all across the globe. They’ve vowed to spill blood all over the world, and with the attacks in Brussels and Paris, it’s clear that they mean business. However, just because there’s a threat doesn’t mean that the liberties that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution guarantee are expendable. It’s just the opposite.

The founding fathers knew what they were doing when writing these documents. They were setting a precedent for generations to come, to show that liberty should triumph over fear. And they didn’t just leave us with that, they gave us the tools to fight terrorism. Legally.

The Fourth Amendment is exactly the tool that is needed to legally bring the fight to terrorists. When we are faced with a threat like the one we are currently facing, we need to make sure that we protect the basic constitutional rights that are supposed to be protected by the Bill of Rights. We need to be protecting the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with the view that the founders had when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.