OPINION:
Frank Thompson, a fifth-generation lobsterman from Maine, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put a stop to a federal policy requiring all licensed lobstermen to install GPS trackers on their boats so government entities can monitor their every moves.
Good Lord, government. Let the lobstermen go free, for crying out loud.
This is classic bureaucratic overreach and whatever reason politicians have found and cited to justify this tracking and surveillance — it’s not warranted. There is no good reason.
That being said — this is what the bureaucrats say: “The policy stems from regulations pushed by the Atlantic states’ marine fisheries commission and implemented by the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Officials say the tracking helps improve data on fishing activity, protect endangered whales and support enforcement efforts,” Fox 22 out of Bangor wrote.
It’s for the greater good, in other words.
That’s what China’s Communists say about installing tracking and surveilling systems on every street corner, in every building, in (probably) every home in their nation — that it’s for the greater good. In fact, that’s the justification cited by pretty much all tyrants in all countries in all governments everywhere, since the dawn of time.
Individualism versus collectivism: it’s the real war.
God-given rights versus government-granted rights: it’s the ultimate war, and the only one that really matters.
Is it a God-given right to provide for one’s family, or not? That’s the question here. During COVID, sadly, Americans received the answer, at least insofar as how the government saw the matter. Now come the lobstermen.
Lobstermen have become a microcosm of Americans’ fight for liberty.
The feds are requiring 10 states on the East Coast, where lobstering is a long-time, long-held way of life and economy, to adopt and enforce the tracking policy, which includes constant monitoring of all licensed lobster vessels, and constant reporting of data back to the government. That even includes the times the vessels are being operated for personal use — for a family vacation — for a weekend getaway.
Somebody, please give these bureaucrats a copy of the Constitution, highlighting in bright yellow or pink the Fourth Amendment.
The Supreme Court has weighed in on vehicle trackers in the past; in United States v. Jones, the court ruled unanimously a GPS tracker that’s installed on a car is an example of a “search,” and therefore, covered by the Fourth Amendment. Unanimously. That means 9-0.
The idea that a citizen of the United States even has to go to court to ask for the right to conduct business without having to install a GPS tracker so government can track and surveil and collect data on every personal movement is egregious in itself. It shows how far this nation has moved from the concept of God-given rights.
It shows how far this country has strayed from the Founding Fathers’ vision of limited governance.
It shows how entrenched the idea has become of government as the boss and the people as the servant class.
It’s supposed to be the other way around; it’s supposed to be government works for the people.
It’s supposed to be that citizens have the right to install trackers on government vehicles and vessels and modes of transportation, in order to ensure the government entities aren’t wasting their employers’ — the people — money.
That being said: The U.S. Supreme Court has already made clear government doesn’t have the automatic right to surveil and track citizens. Apparently, those who are waging this privacy and regulatory nightmare on lobstermen don’t care and need a dramatic wake-up call and reminder of their proper role in this democratic-republic. They should be fired.
It’s not enough for courts to just rule in the lobster industry’s favor. It’s time for harsh consequences on those who would dare to intrude so blithely on God-given and constitutional rights. It’s time for those in positions of political power to lose their positions to send a loud message to the bureaucratic class about who, in America. really holds the power.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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