Rebirth of a nation

This week, which marks both the beginning of spring and Easter weekend, is a time of renewal. It is also Sunshine Week, designed to underline the importance of openness in government. And on Friday, the United States House of Representatives passed a version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that requires the President to justify in court any spying he does on Americans.

This may seem like a jumble of cabbages and kings, but there is a connection. This nation was “conceived in liberty,” but we now have a President who believes he can do whatever he wants without revealing even to a court what he is doing and why he is doing it. That tells us that this country is in drastic need of a little re-conception. And the fact that Congress has finally told the President he has to submit to Constitutional checks and balances is the best hope of such a spring that we have seen in some time.

The idea behind this country is that government is the servant, not the master, of the people. That means that the doings of the government must be visible to the people, so that they know it is doing as they wish. There may be security matters that should not be wide public knowledge, but even in these cases, any government actions have to be subject to written law and the checks of the other branches.

The converse is also true: the government has no right poking into the business of the people, except under circumstances that are carefully circumscribed by law and adjudicated by the judicial branch. President Nixon violated these principles, using executive surveillance power to take down his political enemies, and FISA was written to prevent such abuses from being repeated.

The Bush administration essentially ignored FISA, spied as and upon whom it pleased, and has now tried to cover its tracks by rewriting the law to give itself unchecked power, and to give retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that violated the law at its behest. It justifies its behavior on the basis of documents it says are too secret to reveal to the public or, some of them, even to the courts. And although they are being asked to pass a law on the basis of these documents, most Congress members are not allowed to see them either.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is one of the few who has viewed some of the justifications given by the Department of Justice (part of the executive, not the judicial, branch) for the President’s extra-legal executive orders. But Whitehouse’s Freedom of Information Act request to have the written legal opinions released to the public was refused. And no wonder, if his reports are accurate. One says:

“The President, exercising his constitutional authority under article II, can determine whether an action is a lawful exercise of the President’s authority under article II.”

Translation: The President is the law. Now where have we heard that before? Ah yes, “L’etat c’est moi” (“I am the state”), from the lips of the Sun King, Louis XIV, in the heyday of France’s absolute monarchy.

Advocates of this secrecy try to sell it on the basis of fear. Senator Jeff Sessions said, “The civil libertarians among us would rather defend the Constitution than protect our nation’s security.”

Senator John Cornyn said, “None of your civil liberties matter much after you’re dead.”

The Senatorial and Presidential oaths of office say, “I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies domestic and foreign.” The Constitution, mind. Not our lives and property.

“Give me liberty or give me death” said Patrick Henry.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” said Thomas Jefferson.

“We pledge our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor,” wrote the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, signing a document that would bring the armed might of the most powerful empire in the world against them.

One of these sets of statements provides the vision for a nation. The other does not.

If, in this season of rebirth, we are to recover what our forefathers fought and died for—including a government that is open and accountable to the people—we must be willing to fight for it ourselves. FISA is central to this battleground. Congress is now in recess, but the Senate will consider the rewritten bill when they reconvene in two weeks. If you care about this matter, let your Senators—and all three Presidential candidates—know how you feel.

Also in this issue:

• The bedrock of freedom

Dr. Punnybone

Holland Days