An Open Response to the DOJ

In response to https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/doj-coronavirus-emergency-powers-140023
and https://medium.com/wagovernor/inslee-announces-contact-tracing-initiative-e8cc76da1e8c

The delegates to our 1787 Constitutional Convention argued, debated, bickered and even fought about many issues.

But the one issue that each of the 55 delegates agreed upon unanimously was that THE most important function of government was to protect our freedoms and liberties from the encroachment of government! (The number two issue was to keep us safe.) What would those delegates say about a current DOJ proposal to allow chief judges in federal trial courts, in effect, to suspend habeas corpus until the present COVID-19 “emergency is over?” I say they would rebel! They would damn us for not taking our freedoms and liberties seriously! Even Abraham Lincoln was not successful in suspending habeas corpus, and that was in the time of the Civil War!

People who fled from autocratic countries that were their homelands came to America to be free. Bless them! But now many of them are appalled at how they see our government becoming more like the governments they fled from.  Why don’t the rest of us see that?!

Neocons in government used the tragedy of 9-11 to dust off, present and pass the so-called PATRIOT Act, which I understand had existed “on the shelf” for years. This was the direct frontal assault upon our civil liberties that drove me away from the Republican Party in early 2002 and into the waiting arms of the LP, where I will stay for life. They also used the opportunity of fighting and capturing “dangerous terrorists” in Afghanistan as an excuse to betray our Constitution, laws and principles by opening the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they have kept many so-called enemy combatants to this day without even charging them with an offense, much less providing them with a trial.  This is a continuing outrage that simply must be addressed. Why have those detainees not received a trial?  Because, according to the government, the “terrorist war emergency” is not yet over, so they are still considered to be on the battle field!  Really?  Do we really believe such “technical” arguments.  And now this pandemic is being used for the same purpose. When do you think this COVID-19 crisis will end?

What does the DOJ spokesperson say when questioned about this Un-American proposal?  “No Comment.”

So what do I say about this proposal? I was in the Peace Corps, Navy JAG, a federal prosecutor and a trial court judge for 25 years, and I deeply and transparently believe in responsibility, the Rule of Law and keeping our people safe.  But totally from that perspective, and even at the risk of being sent to Guantanamo myself for life, I say categorically NO!

If this proposal makes any progress at all, all patriots in our country should protest, rebel and defy if necessary! This is not who we are! I stand with our Founders! Do you?