2006-06-17

More Civil Rights Removed by Bush Administration

From the article:

"A lot of people are up in arms about the Supreme Court’s “no knock” decision.

I also think it’s outrageous.

Making police knock before barging into the sanctity of people’s homes is fundamental to the 4th Amendment, and to the principle underlying that dates back to thirteenth century.

Talk about turning back the clocks!

But there’s a decision that bothers me even more, and it’s received a lot less attention.

And that’s a ruling, on July 14, by Federal Judge John Gleeson, that the government can detain noncitizens indefinitely without explanation so long as that end of that detention is “reasonably foreseeable.”

1 comment:

Paul Hue said...

Nadir: I trust you realize that for the most part, I oppose Bush's domestic response to 911. I oppose the unfortunately named Patriot and Homeland Acts in general and in their specifics, including the creation of huge new govt agencies and especially the increased hassle imposed on air travelers. I view these expendatures as classic arguments against Big Govt: spending citizens' money on things the provide no benefit. Surely a better investment -- if there *had* to be a domestic tax spending expendature in response to 911 -- would have been an upgrading in railroad infrastructure, with a leasing to private firms of rail time. Wouldn't this de-centralization of travel make it harder for terrorists to cripple US travel? The new airport taliban checkpoints represent tax payers purchasing their own *INCREASED* travel impediments.

Also, and special new investigation and prosecution tools will always be used for unintended purposes. We have seen already that drug investigations are getting labled "anti-terrorist" efforts ostensibly because drug sales help fund terrorism, but realistically because investigators and prosecuters want to qualify for the new special powers. The Duke rape case should demonstrate to those who have eyes how prosecuters and cops can abuse any powers that they have to get convictions, even from innocent people.

We self-proclaimed small govt advocates should be horrified.