Word: ashcroft
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Earlier this month, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced new Department of Justice rules permitting the monitoring of conversations between people in custody and their lawyers in certain cases. These changes eviscerate cherished principles of due process by making it more difficult for lawyers to effectively represent their clients...
...troubling because a concerted attempt was made to avoid any sort of oversight. The rule went into effect before it was published and the normal period of public comment was avoided by invoking a rarely-used exemption clause. By bypassing the other branches of government in promulgating this rule, Ashcroft also displayed an astonishing disregard for the concept of a separation of powers...
...Ashcroft has failed to provide a good reason for this subterfuge. The House and Senate have generally been eager to pass antiterrorism legislation in a form very similar to what the administration has desired. Indeed, the legislative branch has been almost too willing to relinquish its powers to the executive in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. So alarming has the breathtaking concentration of power in the executive branch been that the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), recently sent Ashcroft a letter...
...previous statements are any guide, Ashcroft will most likely trot out the same tired platitudes that the enormity of the crimes committed and the necessity of preventing future attacks justify any abridgement of constitutional rights. He has already argued that the regulations should not be that alarming because only a very small number of people will be affected. It should not be forgotten, however, that the people in custody have not necessarily been convicted of any crime. In many cases, they have not even been told the crime of which they are accused...
Last Thursday, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft made an announcement about the Justice Department’s “Responsible Cooperators Program,” which allows immigrants faster access to U.S. visas in exchange for valuable information about terrorism. The public announcement follows a series of controversial efforts by the Justice Department to obtain information on terrorism from recent immigrants. But the program, which has been in place since 1994, is a reasonable way to assuage the fears of those who may have knowledge of terrorist activities and to encourage them to come forward...