Suspending the Constitution

[Tim May]

On Saturday, December 14, 2002, at 10:09  AM, Declan McCullagh wrote:

On Thu, Dec 12, 2002 at 10:47:25AM -0800, Tim May wrote:

Secret trials are on the rise. Inasmuch as the U.S. is now throwing its
full weight behind secret evidence, secret prosecutions, secret trials,
secret appeals courts, suspension of habeas corpus, detention of Evil
Ones without charge at concentration camps in Cuba, suspension of the
Fourth and Fifth and Sixth Amendments, and elevation to guilt by

I spoke recently with a former DOD lawyer now at a TLA. That lawyer
says that the current thinking is that if there is a "cyberattack"
from another nation, we are at a state of war and the Fourth Amendment
and other prohibitions on government interference with personal property
and liberty do not apply.*

-Declan

* Yes, you could argue that after the War On Some Politically
Unpopular Drugs, the USA Patriot Act's expansion of eavesdropping
without a court order, the Dept of Homeland Security bill doing the
same thing, the recent FISA appeals court decision, and so on, the 4A
has already been eviscerated. But I'd say there's still a small amount
of life in it for now.

Lincoln's notion that the Constitution is suspendable during a war, or other emergency conditions, was disgraceful. Nothing in the Constitution says that it is suspended when a President declares it to be suspended.

The fact that the courts have been unwilling to review (and reject) the

I don't believe Declan's claim that the 4A is still alive. If people are not confident that their papers and possessions are secure against the dozens of examples of how they are not, then the papers and possessions are in fact NOT secure. The fact that government doesn't bother with 97% of the white suburban population and 85% of the negro and Hispanic urban populations is irrelevant...China doesn't bother with most of its people, nor even did Stalin's U.S.S.R.

"Don't stand out, don't protest policy, don't write letters, don't meet with hackers, and Washington won't interfere with your so-called constitutional rights."

This is where we are.

The thermonuclear cleansing of Washington, D.C. cannot come soon enough. Allah willing, by next Ramadan.

--Tim May