The Patriot Act
Power is always abused. It always has been and it always will be. And the Patriot Act, in the name of the so-called War on Terrorism, bestows enormous, nearly unrestrained, power on the Executive Branch. Much of the power afforded to the President under the Patriot Act runs afoul, if not over, the Bill of Rights.
Writ of Habeas Corpus
The right of habeas corpus, nearly forgotten because of the long accepted tradition in our courts that an individual accused of a crime has the right to appear in court and contest the charges, has been counterfeited by the Patriot Act. The Writ of Habeas Corpus is a summons requiring the authorities detaining an individual to bring the prisoner before the proper court so that the court can determine whether these authorities have the lawful authority to hold the individual. If this custodian cannot provide sufficient proof that it has a legally recognized authority to detain the individual, the court orders the custodian to release him. With the Writ of Habeas Corpus, a State or Federal authority could simply take an individual into custody and neither the individual, his family, his attorney, nor the courts would have power to force the authority to bring the individual to court, explain the reasons for his detention, or require his release. Albert Venn Dicey, a British jurist, wrote that the right to Habeas Corpus is "for practical purposes worth a hundred constitutional articles guaranteeing individual liberty." If not for the right to Habeas Corpus, an individual accused of a crime would have no way exercise any other rights.
In an affront to the Habeas Corpus doctrine and long-established legal precedent, the Bush Administration argues that it has the power under the Patriot Act to indefinitely detain an individual, including U.S. citizens, suspected of terrorist activity without charging him with a crime. Bush argues that these “enemy combatants,” a term that had previously been used to describe prisoners of war, have no recognizable rights under the Constitution, including access to lawyers. Aside from the rights afforded prisoners of war by the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war have had no legal right to access U.S. civilian courts. By labeling U.S. citizens suspected of terrorist activities as “enemy combatants,” Bush claims he has the unilateral right to suspend the right of habeas corpus.
Of the Patriot Act, Congressman David Obey of Wisconsin deadpanned upon its passage, "Why should we care, it's only the Constitution?"
Domestic Terrorism
The Patriot Act creates a new “crime” of domestic terrorism, which it broadly defines as "acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State" and that "appear to be intended ... to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion." An aggressive prosecutor could interpret this vague definition to include nearly any conduct, such as activists assembling to exercise their rights to assemble, to protest, and to dissent. Just as Federal prosecutors have used the RICO statute, a law designed to help law enforcement combat organized crime, against individuals that have no connections to organized crime, they will eventually use the powers given them by the Patriot Act to prosecute citizens that have no connection to any terrorist cell.
If you or a loved one is under investigation for, or has been charged with, domestic terrorism, contact Attorney Mahoney at the earliest possible moment.
