Friday, January 19, 2007

We Are All Potential Enemies of the State Now

Friend Drew sent this to me by email from Bosnia. Astonishing. I post it at length. Read the whole thing - if you're American, your country depends on it.

Responding to questions from Sen. Arlen Specter at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Jan. 18, Gonzales argued that the Constitution doesn’t explicitly bestow habeas corpus rights; it merely says when the so-called Great Writ can be suspended.

“There is no expressed grant of habeas in the Constitution; there’s a prohibition against taking it away,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales’s remark left Specter, the committee’s ranking Republican, stammering.

“Wait a minute,” Specter interjected. “The Constitution says you can’t take it away except in case of rebellion or invasion. Doesn’t that mean you have the right of habeas corpus unless there’s a rebellion or invasion?”

Gonzales continued, “The Constitution doesn’t say every individual in the United States or citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas corpus. It doesn’t say that. It simply says the right shall not be suspended” except in cases of rebellion or invasion.

“You may be treading on your interdiction of violating common sense,” Specter said.

While Gonzales’s statement has a measure of quibbling precision to it, his logic is troubling because it would suggest that many other fundamental rights that Americans hold dear also don’t exist because the Constitution often spells out those rights in the negative...

Applying Gonzales’s reasoning, one could argue that the First Amendment doesn’t explicitly say Americans have the right to worship as they choose, speak as they wish or assemble peacefully. The amendment simply bars the government, i.e. Congress, from passing laws that would impinge on these rights.

Similarly, Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution states that “the privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

The clear meaning of the clause, as interpreted for more than two centuries, is that the Founders recognized the long-established English law principle of habeas corpus, which guarantees people the right of due process, such as formal charges and a fair trial.

That Attorney General Gonzales would express such an extraordinary opinion, doubting the constitutional protection of habeas corpus, suggests either a sophomoric mind or an unwillingness to respect this well-established right, one that the Founders considered so important that they embedded it in the original text of the Constitution...

In effect, what the new law appears to do is to create a parallel “star chamber” system for the prosecution, imprisonment and possible execution of enemies of the state, whether those enemies are foreign or domestic....

4 comments:

roxtar said...

The Constitution doesn't specifically grant us a lot of things. Free speech, for example. freedom of religion, for another.

Rather, the First Amendment states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

"Congress shall make no law..." You don't need a weatherman to know which way Abu Gonzales is likely to blow on that one, do you. I can hear it now: "The First Amendment doesn't restrict the president, it only restricts Congress."

I'd like to hear his thoughts on whether we actually enjoy the rights recognized, but not specifically enumerated in the Bill of Rights. The Ninth Amendment says yes (The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.), but the Ninth Amendment isn't running the DOJ.

Tar. Feathers. Torches. Pitchforks.

Anonymous said...

Quite astounding. Crazy Glue. Toilet seat.

Anonymous said...

It is a sophomoric mind in it's pathetic defensivness.

MT said...

Par for the course. The American system of governance is one big Kabuki show.