The fabric of
our nation is unraveling, and our freedoms are hanging by a thread.
In a world
where the president has the power to label anyone, whether a citizen
or permanent resident, an enemy combatant and detain that person
indefinitely without trial, no liberty exists and everyone is
potentially an “enemy combatant.”
According to
the Bush Administration, Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri is such a person.
This legal
alien, residing in Peoria, Ill., with his wife and children, was
attending college when he was swept up by government agents. He was
held in a military prison for four years without ever being charged
with a crime. And for the first 16 months of his imprisonment, this
man’s family was not even allowed to see him, speak to him or
reassure themselves that he was alive and well.
Because Al-Marri
is not a U.S. citizen, the government denied him basic
constitutional protections such as the right to hear the charges
against him, consult an attorney and appear before a judge to
determine if, in fact, he is guilty of anything. To some people,
this is as it should be. But that’s not the way things are supposed
to work here in America. Even the worst criminals in American
history, from flesh-eating Jeffrey Dahmer to terrorist bomber
Timothy McVeigh, were afforded an attorney and a trial.
This issue is
bigger than Al-Marri. It’s even bigger than the Bush Administration
and its so-called war on terror. The groundwork is being laid for a
new kind of government where it will no longer matter if you’re
innocent or guilty, whether you’re a threat to the nation or even if
you’re a citizen. What will matter is what the president—or whoever
happens to be occupying the Oval Office at the time—thinks. And if
he or she thinks you’re a threat to the nation and should be locked
up, then you’ll be locked up with no access to the protections our
Constitution provides. In effect, you will disappear.
Pandora’s Box
has been opened for presidents to become imperial presidents, which
should terrify anyone with any sense of history. Sadly, few
Americans are up in arms over the ramifications, let alone concerned
that it might impact them in any way. “I’m a law-abiding citizen,”
one man recently remarked. “I have nothing to worry about.”
That statement
might have been true once upon a time, when a person was innocent
until proven guilty and the judicial system could be relied upon to
hear facts and ascertain truth. But such is no longer the case. We
are now operating under a system of government where anything goes
and everyone is suspect.
A recent
ruling from a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals seems to have provided a temporary reprieve from the fear
that our constitutional republic is floundering. In a 2-1 decision,
the court ruled that American citizens and legal aliens like Al-Marri
must be afforded basic constitutional rights such as access to an
attorney and a court and the right to not be imprisoned unless
charged with a crime.
Even so, the
courts will not be our savior on this one. The ruling will likely be
overturned by the full Fourth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court
will probably uphold the reversal. So what do we do in light of
that?
First, we must
recognize that, at a minimum, the accused has the right to present
his side to a judge and jury. We must remember that our Constitution
protects “persons,” not just citizens. Indeed, the Fifth Amendment
guarantees that “no person” will be “deprived of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law.” The Sixth Amendment secures
our right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, to be
informed of the charges brought against us and access to a lawyer.
Together, they ensure that the government cannot take our freedoms
away unless they charge us with a crime, place us before a judge and
jury and give us a fair opportunity to confront the witnesses and
evidence presented against us.
Second, we
must remember that America’s reputation as a defender of the rule of
law is worth preserving. At one time, the Statue of Liberty
symbolized our commitment to fairness and liberty. Today, our
military commissions and secret military detention camps represent
America’s hypocrisy.
Finally, the
Bill of Rights ensures that no public official can by fiat declare
us outside the boundaries of the Constitution. We must always be
leery of government reactions to emergencies and crises because the
government’s natural response is to rein in liberty for safety. But
as Benjamin Franklin once insisted, “Those who would give up
essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve
neither Liberty nor Safety.”
In the end, it
always goes back to “we the people.” It’s up to each of us to decide
what America should stand for and what is worth fighting for. It’s
up to us to elect public officials who understand and revere the
Constitution. And it’s up to us to set the standard of fairness that
should be the basis of all we do.
Constitutional attorney and
author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford
Institute. He can be contacted at
johnw@rutherford.org.
Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at
www.rutherford.org.
