civil rights essay

CIVIL RIGHTS & USA LEGAL PRECEDENTSBYGERRY ALAN LINDGREN Civil Rights are basically defined as citizens’ rights to equality and liberty. Liberty, is defined “The Shorter Oxford Dictionary”, 5th Edition, as: “Exemption of freedom from arbitrary, despotic (absolute power or control) rule or control….Freedom from the bondage of the law….The condition of being able to act in any desired way without restraint; power to do as one likes.” Liberty, therefore, is freedom, subsequently, rights and equality afforded to citizens, and for this article, the guarantees of the Untied States of America’s (U.S.A.) Constitutional Laws for all American citizens. This includes the fundamental basic freedoms of “The Bill of Rights” protected by the U.S.A. Constitution. The first ten Amendments to the Bill of Rights are generally accepted as the foundation of American society and frequently taken for granted unless it is taken away from an individual and/or group.
In the age of terrorism (the utilization of fear tactics to accomplish an objective, usually political), especially since the 9/11/2001 attacks on the U.S.A. by terrorists, the U.S.A. has lived in a “culture of fear” and scare tactics that is perpetuated by some of our leaders and various media forums frightening the populace into acquiescing little by little our civil rights for “safety” from our government due to the methodology of utilizing America’s “enemies” and many, not all, of their legitimate dangers, to allow our leaders to enact new legislation to slowly eradicate liberties and freedoms. This pattern is strongly implemented in American culture today and a lot of people are oblivious to the legal precedent implications that will, I repeat, will eventually affect good people in negative aspects as the momentum for this to keep increasing grows stronger by the day and dangers. It is imperative to have “safety” and freedom, including civil rights and Constitutional Law correctly balanced and prioritized and not to overreact to real and imagined threats to our Nation. The U.S.A., as the leader of the free world, has and always will have external and internal threats and the current dynamics of terrorism (that has already been here in one form or another) and the cyber concerns of the 21st century are serious. Yet, how far do we the people allow intrusions upon our civil rights and constitutional protections for safety, or the illusion of it? A quote often cited on this issue that is frequently used due do its significance is none other than former U.S.A. Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg:
"It is fundamental that the great powers of Congress to conduct war and to regulate the Nation’s foreign relations are subject to the constitutional requirements of due process. The imperative necessity for safeguarding these rights to procedural due process under the gravest of emergencies has existed throughout our Constitutional history, for it is then, under the pressing exigencies of crisis, that there is the greatest temptation to dispense with fundamental Constitutional guarantees which, it is feared, will inhibit governmental action." Listed below are a few more quotes from credible American leaders on this issue, including former U.S.A. presidents:
”They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Letter to Josiah Quincy, Sept. 11, 1773.“It is harder to preserve than to obtain liberty.”“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” “If a nation expects to be both ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be. The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield.”President Thomas Jefferson. 1743-1826 “There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.”President James Madison. 1751-1836As no other words could emphasize that point more eloquently, we will move on to the legal precedents that are currently being set by our government that was initiated by the previous presidential administration due to the real threats of terrorists and pseudo threats that are based on hypothetical situations that most likely will never happen. Some of those legal precedents are being continued by our current presidential administration. A precedent is defined by the same previous source as: “A previous instance taken as an example or rule for subsequent cases, or used to support a similar act or circumstance…a judicial decision that which constitutes a source of law for subsequent cases of a similar kind….an example to be copied.” What this basically states is that a legal precedent of rule of law for one American citizen will be the example utilized for all American citizens, especially when it comes from the U.S.A. Supreme Court and occasionally, a Presidential Executive Order. Thus, what legal precedent happens to someone whom we do not know, good or bad, will legally apply to everybody else despite our social statuses, ethnicities, religious, political, sexual orientations and other differences.
This proliferation of the erosion of civil liberties and constitutional law protections that includes legitimate and dubious surveillance, indefinite detentions, the total disregard for habeas corpus (to be able to challenge in court before a judge with counsel one’s detention) and other habitual disregard for the Bill of Rights Amendments 1, 4-8, 14, 15 and more due to the “culture of fear” is egregious, indeed, even more so when we the people are impercipient and/or ambivalent due to “thinking” that this will never happen to us. This becomes more insidious when we are all currently witnessing an escalation of the “culture of corruption” among certain police and federal agencies, including officials that range from mayors, to governors, even to congress of both major political parties. As a result, one in a position of power who is and/or becomes corrupt, may abuse their authority and power for a multitude of motives that may involve covering-up corruption and scandals, including marriage infidelities and misusing public taxpayer money for their improprieties due to the desire to remain in power, control, money, etc…. Corrupt individuals/entities attempt to avoid at all costs accountability and transparency that results in litigation cases galore, civil and criminal. Subsequently, the justifiable end of careers since our authority figures should be leading by example, not rhetoric and campaign slogans that are pleasing to their constituents.
The “culture of fear” that the U.S.A. is currently experiencing is somewhat of an anomaly as many western nations, such as ones in Europe that live much closer to where the U.S.A. intelligence agencies believe that that terrorist organizations are based from, although concerned, are not as neurotic in their daily lives, daily media, and government interference in their own nation states’ freedoms due to the threat of terrorism. This is a bit embarrassing since the U.S.A. is considered, at least by many, the leader of liberty, justice, and freedom around the world and is the model that many nations used to model themselves after. This is not the pervasive sentiment at the moment due to some ignominious events that gained world attention such as war in Iraq with no W.M.D., the rationale for being there, Abu Ghraib, torture, and Guantanamo Bay just to name a few. Although this appears to be heading back in the right direction, ideally, these notorious events would not have occurred which just diverts attention away from all the good that the U.S.A. does around the world.
Yet, the same principle of safety due to the “culture of fear” that guided and facilitated the angst that sociologically and psychologically impacted the people who are in the war zones (and when they return home) and a national populace in a state of 2 wars, it is not surprising, yet is correctable. The problem internally for the U.S.A., is that this has impacted our own personal freedoms in America and legislation such as the Patriot Act or any others without Congressional and Judicial oversight, including “enhanced interrogation techniques”, that is a disgrace and disingenuous to all those who served and fought for our freedoms, in the past, the present, and the future. Consequently, adding insult to injury, our internal liberties are slowly taken away due to legal precedents that we were told was enacted to protect us from our external enemies.
The juxtaposition that we the people must demand that Congress corrects are that some of these dangerous legal precedents results in the loss of liberties in the rule of law due to “safety”. If not, we will be doomed to lose civil rights and constitutional protections (especially the Bill of Rights), that, to emphasize, we used to take for granted. Instead of a “culture of fear”, we must have a “culture of reason” in which we live according to the realities of the world, not hypotheticals, and deal with them appropriately. If not, with the advancement of technology in the 21st century that will only increase in abilities, the sooner that it is done, the better, to maintain our freedoms simultaneously protecting us without eradicating the principles that this nation was founded upon and looked upon by the rest of the world with dignity and honor.