Published: December 30, 2005 11:41 am      

Imperial Presidency redux?

Commentary

A note about this first column, as an educator I assign grades on a daily basis. So with this column, I will visit issues that affect us and assign a grade to the responsible issue makers. Opinions are cheap, but if I can stimulate one moment of reflective thought I will have attained my goal.



With President Bush’s revelation that he authorized domestic wiretaps, we need to revisit Americans right to privacy. Bush claimed he was authorized under Article II of the Constitution to ask for wiretaps. Article II discusses the President’s powers specifically dealing with his powers as Commander and Chief of the military forces.

For the American public, our right to privacy is about as vague as President Bush’s authority to invade it by citing simply Article II. Nowhere in the Constitution is the right to privacy explicitly guaranteed. It is implied in the 3rd (protection against illegal quartering of troops) the 4th (illegal search and seizure), the 5th (protection against self incrimination), and the 14th (due process) amendments. However, since the right to privacy is implied and not explicit, it is up to the courts to interpret the boundaries.

It may interest the reader to know that in 2004, 1758 domestic secret surveillances were requested under the Federal Intelligence Security Act (FISA) relative to gathering foreign intelligence (from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, EPIC). These requests exceeded the requests for secret surveillances for the third year in a row post 9/11. Out of those 1758, the Federal Bureau of Investigation rejected three. Thirty of those (acknowledged by President Bush) involved domestic surveillance for gathering of foreign intelligence from American citizens. In these instances, a representative of the executive branch presents the case to the FISC (Foreign Intelligence Security Court) made up of ten federal court judges. Furthermore, the provisions for authorizing such surveillance have been lowered twice by Congress.

In the past couple of years, the FBI has conducted repeated surveillance of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), a Catholic Aid Group to name just a couple. The FBI responded by saying they have to follow all leads wherever they end up.

We are living in a highly technological age with the Internet, cellular and satellite communication. The right to privacy will be the seminal issue of the next two decades. Access to and application of personal information becomes Orwellian in scope if not checked by the courts and/or Congress.

I believe that a wartime President should be given broad authority to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. But with that awesome power comes awesome responsibility to keep civil liberties at the forefront of his mind. President Bush’s arrogance in this matter dredges up the late President Nixon’s comment that “when the President does something, it is not illegal.”

•••

Congress receives a D for giving the President so much leeway when expanding FISA. Congress over reacted with their emotions on high and pandering to the emotions of Americans after 9/11 with the Patriot Act and did not put together a thoughtful Bill to aid in combating terrorism. It took the 9/11 Commission to reveal their negligence.

President Bush receives a C+. He finally came clean on going to war in Iraq on faulty information. He had a “B” going for him until he defended his domestic surveillance with all the imperialism of President Nixon who forever tainted the phrase “in the interest of National Security” for all subsequent Presidents.

Former Nixon aide and seasoned politico Bryce Harlow said, “trust is the coin of the realm.” Once that trust is lost, so is the confidence of the American people. Both Congress and the President can earn back the trust by working together to refine the Patriot Act and for President Bush to work on being a little less arrogant in his attitude when it comes to the war on terror.



Tim McDonald is a former sales executive with Knight Ridder and Dow Jones and currently teaches Government and Economics at New Washington High School. He can be reached at tmcdonald@gcs.k12.in.us