Preserving Our Constitutional Rights

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in the depths of the Great Depression, said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” However, in this current climate of fear our civil liberties are being intruded upon.

Recently I read an article in the New York Times by Robin Toner entitled “Bush Law-Enforcement Plan Troubles both Right and Left.” The article is talking about how President Bush wants to expand the powers of the government to intrude on our constitutional rights. He wants to seek more authority to detain all suspected terrorists and those suspected of aiding and supporting them. He also wants broader powers to track communications over telephones and computers, and greater power to seize assets and attack the “financial infrastructure” of suspected terrorist organization.

Why is it a problem that President Bush wants to have the authority to detain all suspected terrorists?  Simple. It’s in violation of Amendment VI of the Constitution. This Amendment says, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial.” What President Bush is doing is wrong because he is holding all these people not knowing who is or isn’t a terrorist. By detaining all of these people the government is engaging in racial profiling. A terrorist can be someone who doesn’t look like a Muslim or Arab person.

Another thing the President wants to do is have broader powers to track communications over telephones and computers. However, that could be a problem. we as the people have the right to our privacy in our homes or where ever we are.

It states in Amendment IV that “The right of the people to be secure in 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.” So we have in writing that he cannot commit such acts. He doesn’t have the right to control what goes on in people home conversations. They have every right to talk about the bombing. Maybe some people are trying to figure out how some one could do this to anybody.