[bilegeek]

> Is it possible to use legislation to make encroachments of freedom harder, or does that require a constitutional amendment?

This phrase just drags me into darkness. Things are so broken, that such legislation is impossible to imagine today.

IANAL, but theoretically, yes, we have the ability to pass and enforce laws that would protect individual and societal rights. In practice, you would need a complete overhaul of both the rules and incentives of the current political system; however, such an overhaul would need a fair and just system to be here in the first place, otherwise it'll just entrench the authoritarianism and/or refuse to enforce the good parts, put in there only as platitudes. So, actually, no.