Word: packwood
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Packwood's lawyer, James F. Fitzpatrick, disagrees. He told The Boston Globe, that the resolution "constitutes a frontal attack on the constitutional right to privacy contained in the Fourth Amendment...
...considerably more serious than underage drinking, the fundamental issue at hand is still privacy. Even worse, imagine if the Ad Board suspects you of some type of criminal behaviors but does not specifically name the crime. Should it nevertheless commandeer your diary? This is what is happening to Packwood...
...same time, by forcibly confiscating Packwood's diaries, the Senate is essentially revoking his Fifth Amendment right not to testify against himself. It certainly is important that if Packwood is guilty, he should be punished like all other citizens. But even those accused of capital crimes can choose not to incriminate themselves. Why should Packwood be denied this same right...
Stepping back from the constitutional arguments, there are several other long-term consequences. By opening up Packwood's diaries, the Senate will have sent a message: If you are going to do anything unethical or illegal, just don't write it down. One of the charms of diaries is that ideally, they can reveal deeply private information about a human being that could never be discovered any other way. Historians constantly pore over every word and nuance of these intimate journals of historical figures. To take a long-term view, future generations would suffer tremendously if all this generation left...
...Packwood is not the only one on the stand. As Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) asserts in The Globe, "The Senate's reputation is very much at stake." Whether or not this entire issue is actually relevant to the lives of average Americans is moot; that every major newspaper has plastered its pages with stores, news analyses and columns on the controversy will force Bob and Mary Jones of Peoria to think about Packwood and the Senate--and not, perhaps, about the real political issues facing them...