President
Bush calls Padilla an "enemy combatant" in the "war
on terrorism" rather than a person accused of conspiring
to commit a crime against the United States. But the "war
on terrorism" is simply a euphemism, not a war against a
nation-state, such as existed in World Wars I and II. Or do President
Bush and the Army now claim the authority to arrest American citizens
accused of being "enemy combatants" in the "war
on drugs" and sock them away in a military brig for the rest
of their lives without the benefit of a trial? How about "enemy
combatants" in the government's more general "war on
crime"?
The 4th,
5th, and 6th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution guarantee that
the federal government will not and cannot deprive any person
accused of a crime of due process of law, a jury trial, right
to counsel, right to be confronted by witnesses against him, the
presumption of innocence, and no punishment unless convicted by
credible evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. These rights stretch
all the way back to Magna Carta – the Great Charter by which
the barons of England forced King John to stop arbitrarily seizing
the people and their property in violation of "the law of
the land." It is those guarantees that have always distinguished
our nation from all other nations, including Cuba, China, and
North Korea (and the former Soviet Union), where people are incarcerated
indefinitely without trial on the arbitrary and capricious orders
of the governing authorities.
The reason
our Founding Fathers insisted on the express inclusion of these
guarantees into the Bill of Rights was to protect us – the
people – from well-meaning but over-zealous federal officials
who would take away our rights and liberties in the midst of a
crisis.
The Constitution
is the supreme law of our land. It is the legal barrier that stands
between tyranny and freedom. The president should be made to honor
and obey the Constitution. Padilla should be turned over to civilian
authorities and accorded all the guarantees and protections he
is entitled to under the Constitution.
Jacob
G. Hornberger is founder and president of The
Future of Freedom Foundation.
