So, it would be perfectly acceptable for the Constitution to deny anyone the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
This is a red herring. Be more specific. Let's take pursuit of happiness as an example of where this line of thought goes nowhere...Lots of drug users want the ability to pursue their happiness. Others disagree... see any number of "Marijauna is the devil's drug" threads on this site. Just to say "it would be perfectly acceptable" I believe is a "whitewash" argument to frame things in a simplistic black and white point of view. Sorry but the Constitution is what we have - we better protect it and not stretch it into a living breathing mostrosity just because something happened we don't like. Get busy and enact legislation to keep what you don't like from happening again. Don't blame the Sheriff because he didn't exceed his authority. If you want to argue that the authority was there because of spacific articles in the Constitution I might be convinced.