Friday, April 19, 2013

Wake Up, Senator

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has written of the Boston bombing suspect:  "If captured, I hope Administration will at least consider holding the Boston suspect as enemy combatant for intelligence gathering purposes." and "The last thing we may want to do is read Boston suspect Miranda Rights telling him to "remain silent."
 

All this Senator is doing in arguing for application of an "enemy combatant" status is to further diminish the confidence of some Americans in the law. Contentions like this coming from a United States Senator become grist forming the extremes of radical political beliefs. The need to arm with military arsenals and challenge with lies, fabrications and implicit threats of force ("2nd Amendment remedies") a government perceived only as an enemy, all grow from a profound disrespect for existing law. A United States Senator sworn to "support ... the Constitution" defiles his office by failing to support the fundamental structure of the law as set out in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. The Preamble to our Bill of Rights states "the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution." Suggesting that the Constitution would be an impediment to justice in this case is to suggest that the foundation of our law no longer serves nor defines America. Senator Graham needs to focus on his fundamental responsibility to the Constitution.

No comments: