I knew that precedent played an important part in the US courts, but wasn't aware that it constituted common law as such. Sounds to me that you are lucky to have a fairly healthy core to your society, including aspects of evolution combined with the stability that enshrining a few basic ideals has to offer.
I'm trying to imagine how frustrating it must be for Bush to have to negotiate the obstacle that it must create for him. I can see how it must be a frustrating quagmire for a megolomaniac to pass through on his path to destruction. Of course he would do his best to chip away at its most essential features.
Lets hope it is old, deep and strong enough to survive his presidency. He is probably the exact type of concern that the founding fathers envisioned when they wrote it's first drafts.
Lets hope America chooses somebody who can repair it and make it strong and shiny again, so that americans may continue to enjoy its protection and the rest of the world may begin to admire it once again.