1. United States
2. Ky.
3. Letter

I am writing today, again, in response to the Grants Pass decision by the Supreme Court. This ruling continues to trouble me as I watch the fallout in Lexington. We have criminalized existence without payment in public places, causing our rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness to have a price tag. A right with a price tag is a privilege of wealth. The right of human beings to take up space, to exist in public, and to travel without molestation are necessary to the other rights of our Constitution. Walkabouts are a religious rite, for example, and the right to be without unreasonable search and seizure are violated by every sweep-n-clear of a homeless encampment. One need only witness the police harassment of a woman in labor in our own state to see that the overreach is drastic and growing. I implore you, please defend the rights of your citizens. Protect us from being "disappeared", from an executive overreach, from being harassed simply for existing in public. Defend our liberties, or we shall be left with little choice but to defend them ourselves. Nobody wins in that scenario.