Reserved to the People

The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: 

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

Unfortunately, these were weakened by Court cases between 1803 and 1820, and later by treaties adopted between 1944 and 2001. 

It turns out that Constitutional limits and language are only guaranteed to last as long as the people are vigilantly involved. 

No matter what the Constitution says, it won't endure if the people don't closely read it and demand that it be followed. 

In this sense they are the fourth branch of government: The Overseers.

When the people, for whatever reasons, stop requiring officials and experts to adhere to the Constitution, those in power alter the Constitution, redefine its precepts, and sometimes mutually agree upon a revisionist and opportunistic definition of its language. 

The people are left out of the decision, and their freedoms decrease.