The Bush Administration, the Constitution, and Advances in Federal Power

"Unfortunately, far from defending the Constitution, President Bush has repeatedly sought to strip out the limits the document places on federal power. In its official legal briefs and public actions, the Bush administration has advanced a view of federal power that is astonishingly broad, a view that includes

a federal government empowered to regulate core political speech—and restrict it greatly when it counts the most: in the days before a federal election
a president who cannot be restrained, through validly enacted statutes, from pursuing any tactic he believes to be effective in the war on terror;
a president who has the inherent constitutional authority to designate American citizens suspected of terrorist activity as "enemy combatants," strip them of any constitutional protection, and lock them up without charges for the duration of the war on terror— in other words, perhaps forever; and
a federal government with the power to supervise virtually every aspect of American life, from kindergarten, to marriage, to the grave."

It seems overly somber, but not necessarily with respect to the second point above, as the preceding articles note. Also consider the little discussed third point. No due process. No recourse. No charges of a crime. What if one day, you or a family member were locked up, because an administration "thought you were a threat." "Not possible," you say? It happens all the time in other parts of the world. Other parts of the world without our system of democracy, without our Constitution The same protections which the current administration has consistently argued get in the way of fighting terrorism. A sham argument.

Getting far tougher on terrorism than we have been is reasonable (and advocated herein). But attempting to usurp authority, and circumvent the Constitution to hold U.S. citizens for a potentially unlimited period of time is not getting tough on terrorism. It is getting tough on America, tough on the Constitution, and tough on the civil liberties upon which America is founded. "We hold these rights to be inalienable." That's what this country is all about. Not something which can be taken away, indefinitely, based upon government suspicion (there can be no check upon the power that mere suspicion grants). Government, according to our Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776, the day we celebrate every year, with flags and fireworks) was created to "secure these rights." Not take them away.