← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Faust
Thread ID: 8268 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2003-07-19
2003-07-19 20:56 | User Profile
** Who's Covered by the Bill of Rights? By Lex Concord
Following September 11th, hundreds of Arab immigrants were rounded up as suspected terrorist conspirators and transported to Cuba to face military tribunals. This draconian move was authorized by the hastily passed USA Patriot Act, which was brought to a vote so quickly that many of our representatives in Congress weren't even allowed to read it first. Civil libertarians objected that holding suspects indefinitely without formal charges or access to counsel, transporting them out of the country, and denying them the right to trial by jury were gross violations of due process. The Justice Department responded by saying that Americans had nothing to worry about, because the new procedures would never be used against American citizens. This promise was quickly forgotten, however, as the idea of designating some citizens as "enemy combatants" was seized as a loophole by government prosecutors.
Most Americans seemed indifferent to this sudden and significant assault on their basic human rights. Many were thankful that no new major terrorist acts were transpiring, and placated by the idea that military tribunals would determine if any of the detainees were in fact innocent of any wrongdoing. Some were troubled that American citizens could be designated as enemy combatants and tried by the military, but assumed it would be done only in extraordinary circumstances, and was unlikely to affect them personally. Almost no one realized that the Bush Administration had violated the highest law of the land, the Bill of Rights, not just in the Jose Padilla case, but also in every other case, including those against non-citizens. Attorney General John Ashcroft was criticized for overzealous enforcement of the Patriot Act, but most of the objections to the Patriot Act itself centered on its violations of the privacy rights of American citizens.
The Bill of Rights, however, makes no exception for the citizenship status of suspected criminals. The Sixth Amendment is quite clear, and quite clearly violated by the Patriot Act:
"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense."
Anyone faced with criminal prosecution is to receive these legal protections, not just American citizens. A moment's reflection will help us understand why. The Bill of Rights is in no way a list of rights granted by the government to its citizens. The Bill of Rights is a list of limitations on government power. This country was founded on the idea of natural rights, the idea that human beings are born with certain "unalienable rights," as Thomas Jefferson described them. The government does not grant these rights, it only acknowledges, via the Bill of Rights, that it is duty-bound to never violate them.
Citizens of other nations are born with those same human rights, whether their governments recognize those rights or not. If they are arrested in this nation, our government is still duty-bound to operate within the legal limits placed on it by the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution our elected leaders have solemnly sworn to preserve, protect, and defend. No one, regardless of citizenship status, is to be hauled away to Cuba, with no formal charges being filed, to be denied a trial by jury, or access to legal counsel, for any reason whatsoever.
Those of us who care about protecting our basic human rights, and preserving the idea that our government must recognize them, are duty-bound to remove from office any elected official who violates his or her oath of office, and acts as if he or she is free to ignore the limitations on arbitrary power found in the Bill of Rights. In the election of 2004, if we fail to remove from office everyone who voted for the Patriot Act, we will have failed in our duty. Judge Learned Hand warned what would happen if we fail in this duty: "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it..."
[url=http://www.sierratimes.com/03/07/19/guestoped_lc.htm]http://www.sierratimes.com/03/07/19/guestoped_lc.htm[/url] **
2003-07-20 05:11 | User Profile
**Most Americans seemed indifferent to this sudden and significant assault on their basic human rights. ** The problem is, many OTHER Americans are cautious (and I think, not OVERLY cautious) about trying to do anything about it! If you stick up your head to complain, it's likely to get cut off! (Whack a mole, anyone?) (The FBI will come to investigate what you're reading!!)
And still other Americans feel it's totally and hopelessly useless to try to fight these losses of freedom, because it's a juggeranut, and cannot be stopped or reversed; if you try to redirect it, you will merely get crushed by its treds..
(Depressed? Who, me? Nah, I'm a realist!) HA!