Cato Daily Dispatch for December 16, 2003
Subscribe to the Daily Dispatch via email
Subscribe to the Daily Dispatch via PDA (AvantGo)
(Links to outside sources were active as of the date of this dispatch; however, not all news sources maintain links to current stories indefinitely. Some links also may require registration.)
Panel Recommends Civil Liberties Review BoardSupreme Court OKs Maryland Drug Arrests
Bush: How Do We Unite Iraq?
Panel Recommends Civil Liberties Review Board
"A federal commission on terrorism recommended on Monday that the White House establish an independent bipartisan panel to review whether new laws and regulations proposed by the government might infringe on civil liberties," The New York Times reports.
In "Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Preserving Our Liberties While Fighting Terrorism," Timothy Lynch, director of Cato's Project on Criminal Justice, argues that "freedom is a precious thing that must be vigorously defended."
He goes on to say: "The president of the United States wields enormous power, but it is sheer folly for anyone to think that he can stop terrorists from attacking the American homeland. Since intelligence and defense experts fully expect more atrocities in the foreseeable future, it is clear that Americans have a stark choice: We can either retain our freedom or we can throw it away in an attempt to make ourselves safe.
"This choice must be confronted and not evaded. No one can deny the fact that if the cycle of terrorist attack followed by government curtailment of civil liberties continues, America will eventually lose the key attribute that has made it great, namely, freedom."
Supreme Court OKs Maryland Drug Arrests
"The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Baltimore County police acted properly four years ago when they arrested all three occupants of a car after the officers discovered drugs and cash inside and everyone denied owning them," The Washington Post reports. "By a vote of 9 to 0, the court said that such an arrest was consistent with the constitutional requirement that arrests be based on 'probable cause,' because under the circumstances it was reasonable to assume that one, some or all of the people in the car were involved in illegal activity."
In "The Drug War on the Constitution," Steven Duke, Yale University professor of law, calls the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution "a casualty of the drug war."
"The Supreme Court has not stopped at amending the Fourth Amendment's 'probable cause' to mean, in most cases, only 'reasonable suspicion,' and creating a dozen or more exceptions to the search warrant requirement; it has also virtually eliminated legal remedies for those few searches that are still illegal," Duke argues. "The drug war cannot succeed in ending the consumption of illicit substances but if the unwinnable war continues, it can deprive us all of precious liberties. It has already done so."
Bush: How Do We Unite Iraq?
"Despite the capture of Saddam Hussein, an important challenge for the Bush administration and its Iraqi allies remains: how to persuade Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority to take part in building a new Iraq," USA Today reports. "President Bush acknowledged as much on Monday at a news conference. 'It's going to be very important for Iraqi authorities to reach out ... and talk about a system that guarantees minority rights.'''
In "Squaring the Democratic Circle," Cato Senior Fellow Patrick Basham writes: "To ensure that Iraq doesn't become another Bosnia or Lebanon ... a balance of power must be achieved between those subscribing to different interpretations of the Muslim faith."
"New political institutions must be designed to prevent the long-suppressed Shiites from (a) exacting revenge upon the Sunnis and (b) ignoring the needs of the Kurds and urban secularists," says Basham. "History informs us that the political infrastructure necessary to support a democratic system of representative government requires a constitution that: limits the power of government to interfere in people's lives; establishes the primacy of the rule of law; settles conflict through an impartial judicial system; maintains public order through an untainted police force; mandates regular elections; and guarantees freedom of speech and association."
Wyatt Dubois, editor, wdubois@cato.org