An Overzealous Patriot

With Osama bin Laden yammering again on audiotape and intercepted intelligence chatter pushing the nation to the Code Orange level of alert, no one is in a mood to go soft on terrorists. That doesn’t mean it’s OK for the Bush administration to hammer away at constitutional freedoms.

Americans would like nothing more than to watch SWAT teams batter their way into the hide-outs of every Al Qaeda sleeper cell. In hopes of making that happen, Congress hastily passed the USA Patriot Act after Sept. 11, giving law enforcement extraordinary new powers to track and arrest potential terrorists. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft has used those powers to the max. But now he wants more power, more control -- funny how that happens -- and Congress needs to use its constitutional power to control him.

In recent weeks, Ashcroft has reportedly circulated draft legislation titled the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003. Informally dubbed Patriot II, it would go well beyond the 2001 Patriot Act in diminishing essential civil liberties.

After 9/11, the Justice Department rounded up some 1,200 people, most of whom were never charged with a crime. It held them -- often incommunicado, at least for a while without access to attorneys -- on immigration charges or as material witnesses. In most cases, Ashcroft refused to release the names of those he detained, even when Congress asked.

Judges released some of those terror suspects after bail hearings, concluding they posed no danger to the public and were unlikely to flee. Patriot II would cement in law a “presumption for pretrial detention.” The measure would make it easier to deport illegal immigrants and wiretap suspects even if agents could not tie them to a specific foreign group.

Ashcroft also seeks the power to strip citizenship from Americans shown to be working with terrorist groups. Among the targets might be citizens who donated to what they thought were legitimate nonprofit groups. Wow. Is it any wonder the Supreme Court has unequivocally rejected similar legislative assaults on individuals’ citizenship rights?

Ashcroft has presented no evidence that the terror-fighting authority he gained in 2001 is inadequate to the task. In fact, he has offered little information on his department’s investigations, imperiously rebuffing lawmakers who have asked to see it, including such administration supporters as Reps. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and Bob Barr (R-Ga.).

The United States is as much a set of ideals as it is a piece of geography. To defend it, Congress and the American people must be as vigilant about protecting individual rights from overzealous patriots as they are about foiling anti-American fanatics.