Sep 19th, 2008
Posted by Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 5:37pm	National Security

The Constitution: It's Aliiiiive!

But just barely. Matt Stoller at OpenLeft writes:

Of course, the Constitution isn't a quaint representation of some wonderful time of yore, it is a living document that must be refreshed from time to time with our willingness to recreate rights against an oppressive conservative movement aided by the quislings who shout for civil liberties but are unwilling to pay any price or even consider challenging their favorite politicians to add richness to their words.

[…]So we have to restore our civil liberties, using, as we saw in St Paul, our own words, actions, and bodies if necessary.  That's how every generation of Americans did it before us and it's how we'll do it again.
Our electoral process is a start.  Letters to the editor and to Congress are a start.  Blogging is a start.  Ultimately, the massive forces arrayed against civil liberties, including the huge sums of money designed to suppress free speech and spy on all of us in the name of Bush's war on terror, will need to be confronted with creativity, innovation, and resolve.

And that's how we'll restore the Constitution.

A restoration of the Constitution must begin with the re-establishment of the system of checks and balances that has served us so well for more than 200 years. As Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office wrote in Huffington Post today:

[…]In its first hundred days, the next administration should take at least three steps to restore the critical constitutional checks and balances citizens demand. First, our leaders should ensure there is no more warrantless spying; second, they should direct the attorney general and other relevant agency heads to end government monitoring of political activists who are not suspected of involvement in criminal activity; and, third, they should review the government's terrorist watch lists so that the names on the lists are limited to those who would do us harm.

In other words, undo the damage done by the Bush/Cheney administration. And you can be sure the ACLU will be hounding the new administration from Day One.

Permalink |	National Security

Tags: Civil Liberties News, constitutionvoter

1. Liberal hater Says:
   Sep 19th, 2008 at 11:21pm

   The only quislings in America are liberals. You see, they hate America and want to turn it into a third world nation.

   At least the liberal, moron writer admitted that liberals want to "update" the Constitution- i.e., gay marriage, partial-bith abortion, affirmative action, excluding the 2nd amendment".

   The 5th column is alive and well in America. Liberalism is a mental disorder!

2. Michael Says:
   Sep 20th, 2008 at 2:26pm

   How about accepting the way it was written. I am sick and tired of minorities crying out injustice and unfairness. It's a matter of how the majority rules. It's like not getting picked for the ball team, tough luck. Most racism is in place because people who see it everywhere project themselves as victims. It's like the truly discrimate Affirmative Action policy. The most qualify get in based on qualifications and character, not because you don't have enough women or black people or whatever working for you. The constitution is to read strictly. Speaking of warping the Constitution how is it at all "American" that a court overruled the will of the people in California? Whatever...Conservative policies are always the best...not Republican or Democratic policies...Conservative policies.

3. Walter Howard Says:
   Sep 21st, 2008 at 2:36am

   Where have you guys been for the last 3 months???? Congress is about to hand The Treasury Secretary of the United States the purse strings of the country with UNLIMITED ABILITY TO SPEND!

   You're all about to be plunged into a Depression while the people who caused it are going to be bailed out. The Supreme Court has said nothing about this.

   What's going on????

4. Ron Says:
   Sep 21st, 2008 at 7:25pm

   The majority of US citizens at one unfortunate period in our history, also agreed that slavery was legal. Killing unborn children may be popular but that does not make it right. History may once again look back on the convenient decisions by self-centered "free" and "living" citizens to have their own "popular" way regardless of what is right and wrong. I'm proud of our country but not proud of the liberal aka "convenient" freedoms that too many choose to justify and take.

5. Alex Says:
   Sep 21st, 2008 at 8:30pm

   I completely agree, Michael, the constitution was never meant to be living, it was meant to be the same thing it was 200 years ago. By the way, the idea that the system of checks and balances has ever worked is moronic. I believe it was Andrew Jackson who completely overruled a Supreme court ruling to stop massacring Natives?

6. WilliamF Says:
   Sep 22nd, 2008 at 9:26am

   There are legitimate arguments against the ACLU and some of its positions but there is no doubt, in my opinion, when it comes to Constitutional rights the ACLU cares more about you and I than your "representatives" in Washington. Our alleged "representatives are too busy sucking-up free lunches and taking junkets with their families and lobbyists. So criticize away but do reconsider the role of the ACLU in protecting our constitution.

7. Brett Bellmore Says:
   Sep 22nd, 2008 at 8:13pm

   I prefer to call it the "undead" constitution, since it's just a shambling mockery of the one that was actually ratified by the states.

8. Scott Says:
   Sep 23rd, 2008 at 5:52am

   I lost what I said because your spam word was unreadable. And it did not remember what I typed. Please upgrade you system so that it uses a better CAPTCHA system.

   Thank you.

9. j Says:
   Sep 23rd, 2008 at 1:11pm

   and the aclu moderator should probably stop censoring comments; it's not very becoming as a defender of civil liberties.

10. Brett Bellmore Says:
    Sep 24th, 2008 at 6:33am

    William, the Constitution is nothing but a rhetorical bloody flag for the ACLU to wave around, they don't give a bucket of warm piss about the Constitution, as such. If Strossen's formal divorce decree from the Bill of Rights, ("not-coextensive") didn't make that clear, the reaction to Heller certainly did.

    Sometimes the ACLU is right, sometimes it's wrong, but a defender of the Constitution? Only by coincidence...

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