New amendment to take the others away for a certain time of time for the good of the people

Okay. This is an interesting and continually recurring topic so I'm gonna jump right on in. Haven't done this before, so be nice. Now, upon reading the argument, the first thing that immediately comes to mind is the Reichstag Fire Decree, which was essentially exactly what you're suggesting. Passed by Adolf Hitler after a fire broke out at the Reichstag, it suspended all of the right guaranteed by the Wiemar Constitution, allowing Hitler to, "restrict the rights of personal freedom, freedom of expression, including the freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications. Warrants for House searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed." The article was passed under the guise of, "a defensive measure against Communist acts of violence that endanger the state", and essentially ended up giving Hitler the dictatorial control over Germany he's now renown for. So if you want a historical precedent, there's a great one. However, that's more of an anecdotal proof. The next biggest issue with that idea is that it defeats the purpose of having a documented constitution. The reason we create documents like constitutions, declarations, and bills of rights, is that the rights imposed by such documents are considered to be inalienable (Which, presumably, is why they're referred to as "inalienable rights"). The reason we consider amendments which provide for us things like free speech, public assembly, and privacy to be freedoms is that the government of the state bound by the amendments cannot, so long as they uphold the document, ever violate them. If an amendment was created which allowed, at the total authority of a governing body or individual, to suspend the freedoms provided, then they're no longer freedoms. They become mere privileges, available to the populace only through the trust of the leader. There isn't much of a point behind having a document guaranteeing inalienable rights if said rights are not guaranteed. If such an amendment existed, the citizen would have no guarantee whatsoever that their rights, even if suspended for what they considered a valid or morally good reason, would ever be returned to them once they were suspended. There's a more strictly moral version of that argument as well. Would a journalist feel safe publishing an article about corruption in a legislation or illicit activities of a governor if that governor had the ability to suppress their media? That journalist is being protected by those rights, and without them, what's to stop the governor from having that journalist imprisoned? If the right to public assembly could be revoked on the authority of a leader, then what guarantee do protesters have that any public demonstration won't lead to mass arrests? More over, the populace has no control over what might constitute a valid reason for such suspension of rights. If an individual carrying a certain characteristic or following a certain practice was deemed a threat, any other person also a member of those groups would have their rights revoked, whether or not they had done anything threatening (See: Hitler and Communists). Even if there was some check on the authority deciding when to revoke rights, that authority could easily declare something obscure, like 'criminal activity' as the provocation, and giving no such specific details as to the threat or what would constitute it's elimination, the suspension could easily be justified in continuing indefinitely. The last thing, probably, is whether it's actually appropriate to suspend rights at all. Should rights be guaranteed to everybody, regardless of how they use them? This one is rather difficult to answer. Again, I've never been on here before, so people can feel free to rail on me for not using the proper etiquette. Source for the Reichstag Fire Decree quotes: http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org...