SO MUCH FOR THE BILL OF RIGHTS

The release of nine Department of Justice memos written in the months following the 9/11 attacks, during the Bush presidency, shows the total contempt the government had for the Bill of Rights.

In an October 23, 2001 memo Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo and Special Counsel Robert J. Delahunty stated that not only could he military be used to arrest terrorists in the United States but that they did not have to comply with Fourth Amendment requirements regarding the use of search warrants. In a September 25, 2002 memo Yoo justified amending the law to allow warrantless searches in the United States to obtain intelligence.

Also in the October 23, 2001 memo Yoo stated that, “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo wrote, in another memo: “The current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically.”

A cardinal rule of statutory interpretation is that when the language of the statute (or the Constitutional amendment) is clear the plain language supersedes other interpretations. The Fourth Amendment states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

It has no exception for terrorists or for al-Qaeda or for the whims of George Bush and John Yoo. As Benjamin Franklin said,

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.

As Edward R. Morrow said,

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home

As Abraham Lincoln said,

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

The memos point out the need for Senator Patrick Leahy’s Truth Commission. Such a commission would investigate torture, illegal wiretaps, and other violations of human rights.

For it is clear that if we violate our own rights we cannot cry when others violate rights.