IP: Legal Powers Are Expanded in Bush Plan

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

With high-profile legislation and the fine print of federal rule changes, 
the Bush administration is constructing an alternate system of justice that 
gives the government far greater power to detain, investigate and prosecute 
people suspected of involvement in terrorism.
Those changes, described by legal experts and government and law 
enforcement officials, amount to a monumental shift in criminal justice 
that most heavily affects residents of the country who are not citizens but 
who until now have had many of the constitutional rights and protections of 
citizens.
The administration claims its initiatives command strong public support, a 
view bolstered by recent polls. Yet the new approach has stirred mixed 
feelings both inside and outside government. Even many critics acknowledge 
the need for special measures but worry about the constitutional and civil 
liberties implications.
Although it remains unclear how widely these new powers will be applied, 
the provisions challenge some basic principles of the American judicial 
system, including the right to a jury trial, the privacy of the 
attorney-client relationship and protections against the use of preventive 
detention.
The steps taken by the administration reflect outrage that the Sept. 11 
terrorists were foreigners who lived freely and undetected in the United 
States, even though some had violated their visas, and the fear that 
potential terrorists or people with information about terrorist acts are 
among the millions of immigrants in the country.
"We're an open society, we give people access to the American dream," said 
Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director. "With that privilege 
there is a responsibility. That responsibility has not always been lived up 
to, and it's not always been asked that they live up to it, either."
President Bush's authorization of secret military tribunals for noncitizens 
accused of terrorism and the systematic interviewing of 5,000 young Middle 
Eastern men in the country on temporary visas is well known. But broad new 
powers are also contained in more obscure provisions.
A recent rule change published without announcement in the Federal Register 
gives the government wide latitude to keep noncitizens in detention even 
when an immigration judge has ordered them freed.
And under new laws, the attorney general can detain for deportation any 
noncitizen who he has "reasonable grounds to believe" is "engaged in any 
activity that endangers the national security of the United States," 
according to a recent internal Immigration and Naturalization Service 
memorandum.
Critics have said that the administration's measures, taken together, 
amount to singling out people on the basis of nationality or ethnicity.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/25/politics/25LEGA.html


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