The War on the Bill of Rights#and the Gathering Resistance

by Hentoff, Nat

• ISBN13: 9781583226216
• ISBN10: 1583226214
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-09-02
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Summary

"The Constitution," said Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia ominously in March, 2003, "just sets minimums. Most of the rights that you enjoy go way beyond what the Constitution requires." In The War on the Bill of Rights-and the Gathering Resistance, nationally syndicated columnist and Village Voice mainstay Nat Hentoff draws on untapped sources-from reporters, resisters, and civil liberties law professors across the country to administration insiders-to piece together the true dimensions of the current assault on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The first draft of the USA PATRIOT Act to go to Congress included the suspension of habeas corpus. The proposed sequel (PATRIOT Act II) would make it possible to revoke U.S. citizenship, and, for the first time in history, authorize secret arrests. Both Patriot Acts increase electronic surveillance of Americans, with minimal judicial supervision. Hentoff refocuses attention on domestic surveillance initiatives established by unilateral executive actions, such as Operation TIPS and the Total Information Awareness System, both still quietly functioning. Hentoff chronicles the inevitable rise of citizen's groups against these gross infringements, comparing today's Bill of Rights Defense Committees to Samuel Adams's Sons of Liberty, whose campaign against the British helped to precipitate the American Revolution. Afforded little coverage in the major media, the Bill of Rights Defense Committees now have spread to nearly one hundred cities and towns nationwide. Hentoff quotes Lance Morrow, who wrote, "If Americans win a war (not just against Saddam Hussein but the longer-term struggle) and lose the Constitution, they will have lost everything." Nat Hentoff, a prolific author and journalist and weekly columnist in the Village Voice, has won the National Press Foundation Award for Distinguished Contributions to Journalism, and the American Bar Association Certificate of Merit for Coverage of the Criminal Justice System, as well as the Thomas Szasz Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Cause of Civil Liberties.

Author Biography

Nat Hentoff is a longtime civil liberties commentator. He has written books on education, civil rights, and jazz, among other topics. His column is published weekly in The Village Voice, which Hentoff joined in 1957. His column "Sweet Land of Liberty" is published weekly in The Washington Times, and syndicated nationally. Prior to coming to the Voice, Hentoff worked as a columnist for the Washington Post and as a reporter for The New Yorker. A Fulbright scholar who studied at the Sorbonne, graduated with honors from Northeastern University. Twice a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, Hentoff lives in New York City

Table of Contents

"Why Should We Care? It's Only the Constitution"	p. 11
How We Began to Lose Our Liberties	p. 19
A Society Under Surveillance	p. 26
J. Edgar Hoover Lives!	p. 32
The FBI Eyeing What You Read	p. 35
Burglars with Badges	p. 39
The FBI's Magic Lantern	p. 43
Computers Will Say Who We Are	p. 46
The Patriot Enforcers	p. 50
A Citizen Shorn of All Rights	p. 54
Liberty's Court of Last Resort	p. 59
Ashcroft's Detention Camp	p. 62
The American Way of Torture	p. 65
Our Designated Killers	p. 69
Ashcroft's Master Plan to Spy on Us	p. 75
The Apparent Death of Operation TIPS	p. 78
Ashcroft Out of Control	p. 81
Red Alert for the Bill of Rights	p. 84
The Sons and Daughters of Liberty and Their Opponents	p. 87
Grass Roots of the Constitution	p. 92
The Unilateral President	p. 97
Spinning the Military Tribunal	p. 101
Vanishing Liberties	p. 105
Bush-Ashcroft vs. Homeland Security	p. 109
Conservatives Rise for the Bill of Rights!	p. 113
Protecting John Ashcroft from Congress--and Us	p. 117
Will American Liberty Survive the War on Terrorism?	p. 120
Dick Armey's Farewell Address	p. 125
Knowing Enough of Our History to Save Our Future	p. 127
A Secret Meeting in 1773 on Which "The Political Salvation of America Depends"	p. 130
The Chilling Effect on Our Freedoms	p. 134
In the Enduring Spirit of Sam Adams	p. 142
Justice Denied at Its Source	p. 146
Ashcroft in Conference	p. 150
The Once and Former Rule of Law	p. 154
Epilogue	p. 158
Acknowledgments	p. 160
Index	p. 161
About the Author	p. 175
Other Books by Nat Hentoff	p. 176
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