December 14, 2002
Time to get serious about the Bill of
Rights
I just got the call from the doctor. It doesn't
look good. I don't think the patient is going to pull
through.
It's sad, but by the
time you read this, the Bill of Rights will probably be dead. Its
vital signs are dangerously low at the time of this writing, and
there's little reason to expect it to recover.
Confused? Perhaps you haven't seen the injuries
the Bill has suffered in the "war on terror." Let's take a look -
you can make your own prognosis. The vital organs of the Bill of
Rights are its freedoms, so that's what we'll look at. The quotes I
include are from the "Overview of Changes to Legal Rights" that was
published by the Associated Press in September of this year.
FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION: "Government
may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting
criminal activity to assist terror investigation." Not only that,
but the ban on COINTELPRO activities - the covert infiltration and
intentional disruption of "problematic" political organizations,
made infamous in the '60s and '70s - has been lifted.
RIGHT TO PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF
GRIEVANCES: "Government has closed once-public immigration hearings,
has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has
encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests." Recently,
Congress granted a wide-ranging Freedom of Information Act exemption
to the Homeland Security Agency, effectively cloaking the actions of
hundreds of thousands of federal employees. It also granted them
expanded powers - and laid the groundwork for a comprehensive "Total
Information Awareness" database of all public activities of all
Americans. It's hard to petition the government for a redress of
grievances when we can't find out what the government is
doing.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH:
"Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records
if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information
related to a terror investigation." Taking a rare political stand,
librarians have banded together in large numbers to oppose the
"USA-PATRIOT Act." The Act requires them to release library records
to federal agents (who don't need to have proof of wrongdoing or
involvement with terrorism), and threatens them with hefty penalties
if they tell anyone about it. Similar requirements are imposed upon
most other places you do business with.
RIGHT TO LEGAL REPRESENTATION: "Government may
monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and
clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes." The Sixth
Amendment requires that the accused have the "assistance of counsel
for his defense." Does it still count as assistance if the defense
attorney is hobbled by a lack of attorney-client privacy? I guess if
some Americans can be tried without any lawyer at all, those who
have only lost attorney-client privacy should consider themselves
lucky.
FREEDOM FROM
UNREASONABLE SEARCHES: "Government may search and seize Americans'
papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror
investigation." Law enforcement has been granted near-total
discretion over what constitutes a "reasonable" search, and the
Fourth Amendment requirement of "probable cause" is on its way to
becoming a distant memory. Judges, formerly the last line of defense
against unreasonable searches and seizures, have simply been pushed
out of the way - relegated to the role of rubber-stamping any
warrant request that law enforcement claims could be useful to
them.
RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND
PUBLIC TRIAL: "Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a
trial." Not only that, but a no-longer-secret CIA directive allows
the government to kill U.S. citizens without any criminal procedure
whatsoever, as long as they can claim the American was an "enemy
combatant" in the "war on terror."
RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS: "Americans may be jailed
without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against
them." See the above, and add optional military tribunals for anyone
that the administration sees fit to designate a "terrorist" - a term
that has yet to be clearly defined. Last year, FBI Director Louis
Freeh testified to Congress about domestic terrorist organizations,
listing not just the usual suspects such as the tree-spikers and
saboteurs of labs, but also mentioning "anarchists and extreme
socialist groups", as well as the WTO protesters, the Workers World
Party and others.
These are
just some of the most grievous injuries the Bill of Rights has
suffered since 9/11. There are too many to list them all. Are you
still confused about why I'm claiming the Bill of Rights is dead?
How many injuries do you think the highest law of the land can take
and still be considered living? You might want to think about that
one for a while.
While you're
thinking, come visit http://www.ncrights.org/, the new home of the Nevada
County Bill of Rights Defense Committee, where you can read
background material on all that I've talked about here and learn
about our plans to make Nevada County a "Civil Liberties Safe
Zone."
If you're already
concerned about the threats to liberty that I've discussed here, but
unsure of what to do about it, you can start by joining our
Procession and Funeral for the Bill of Rights tomorrow, starting at
1 p.m., at the top of the hill on Broad Street in Nevada City. Yes,
in the rain, if need be. The time for paying lip service to the Bill
of Rights is over. It's time to get serious.
Lance Brown
is Chair of the Nevada County Libertarian Party, and a co-founder of
the Nevada County Bill of Rights Defense Committee. He can be
reached at 274-2474, or lance@ncrights.org
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