Civil Liberties Are What Now?

The lonely libertarian’s anti-war mother wanted help printing brochures for a civil liberties talk co-sponsored by her group, West Hartford Citizens For Peace And Justice. The talk is by John C. Brittain Chief Counsel and Senior Deputy of the Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law, and takes place Saturday June 17th at 3:00 PM at the Central Baptist Church at 457 Main Street in Hartford Connecticut. The title of the talk? “Civil Liberties Under Attack: Why The Assault On Immigrants, Enemy Combatants, and Jose Padilla Matters To You.”

Why am I blogging? Because the talk seems to be about three very different issues, and this just seems very typical of the anti-war left. The peace movement should be about peace, and need not be inclusive. And civil liberty concerns should be about civil liberties. Attempts to link all these sorts of issues together only results in confusion and a dilution of your message. All of three of these topics matter, but that doesn’t mean they need to be connected. Jose Padilla is an American citizen, and what to do with American citizens captured on American soil and accused of conspiring with terrorists is a question that need be addressed. But that question is a very different one from what to do with terrorists who are not members of any national army which is party to the Geneva Accords and are captured in military engagements in Afghanistan.

And as a strong proponent of open borders and immigration, I wonder what the civil liberty issues are here in regards to immigrants. Summary deportation of immigrants here “illegally” raises moral concerns in my mind, but summary deportation is not summary detention. The issue with terror suspects is the lack of procedure- with immigrants the issue is changing the procedures we already have. So why connect these three very different issues? I have no earthly idea. Which is probably why I’ll be there in June.