OCTOBER 1 2002
Supreme Court to Focus on Criminal Law, Terrorism, Civil Rights
"Concerning the war on terrorism, observers are carefully watching
instances of how the government is holding two Americans classified as
enemy combatants in military jails without formal charges and without
giving them access to attorneys. One of the Americans is Yaser Hamdi,
who was born in Louisiana, raised in Saudi Arabia, and captured last
November on the battlefield in Afghanistan. The other is Jose Padilla,
who was born in Brooklyn, New York, raised in Chicago, and arrested in
May in connection with what officials said was a plot to build and
detonate bombs.
While the Bush administration takes the position it is acting properly
and legally, some observers believe the dispute is likely to end up
before the Supreme Court in a contest between the rights of detainees
and the power of the president to detain combatants during a time of
hostilities."
SEPT. 30 2002
I Don't Know and I Don't Care! - the importance of caring about the Constitution. -
by Lady Liberty
" The person who is unprepared or unable to acknowledge that the Constitution and Bill of Rights still apply today as they did twenty years ago or two hundred years ago represents a far greater danger to our liberty than does even the most power-hungry politician. The only potentially redeeming factor of such ignorance or apathy in an American citizen is this: he or she probably doesn't bother to vote any more than he or she bothers to appreciate the right to do so."
First Amendment incertitude - by Cal Thomas
"The point of teaching the First Amendment is to learn that the same Constitution that protects the rights of people who say things with which you disagree also guards your right to say something with which other people disagree.
As the AJR poll summary concludes: "The terrorists view our personal liberties with contempt and see them as a weakness. The challenge for all Americans is to truly embrace the freedoms of the First Amendment and show just how strong we really are."
Judge says Constitution will be main consideration in terror suspects' case
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Associated Press,
Saturday, September 21, 2002
" A federal judge said the Constitution, not fears about terrorism, will guide his decision about whether six suspected members of a New York terror cell must remain jailed until their trial....
Schroeder said his aim is to protect the Constitution, which he called ``probably the most valuable aspect of all.''
EDITORIAL: The Constitution 'alive and well'
But most people don't have much of an idea what's actually in there
John Adams, second president of the United States, ringingly insisted, "You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe."
" The future of a free people depends on each succeeding generation being taught to cherish their liberties -- which means they have to know what those liberties are, the mechanisms by which they're supposed to be safeguarded ... and whether pure "democracy" is a boon to those rights, or a skulking assassin in the night. "