WE THE PEOPLE: Ignoring the rule of law is a dangerous precedent

Opinion

May 20, 2009

By Clyde Ussery / Chronicle contributor The Crossville Chronicle Wed May 20, 2009, 07:17 AM CDT

Back in the days when, as someone said, indignation was righteous, no detail regarding Bill Clinton’s merrymaking in the Oval Office was too trivial for the perpetually outraged to investigate. Now those same people have had an attitude adjustment and can’t turn the page on torture fast enough. They wanted punishment when the offender lied in a deposition for a civil trial, but want to “move on” when the offenders authorized torture.

With the threat of prosecution hovering over them, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice are frantically pushing their version of reality. The great quail hunter is all over the place telling us how “enhanced interrogation” has protected us from harm. Unfortunately, Dick, nothing has protected us from you. Condi says when the president does it that means it’s not illegal. Does the name Richard Nixon not ring a bell? That was not true when he said it three decades ago and it’s not true today.

Torture is a crime under United States law, and it is a crime under the Third Geneva Convention and the UN’s Anti-Torture Convention, both of which the United States signed. Article VI of the United States Constitution clearly states that all treaties made under the authority of the United States “shall be the supreme law of the land.” In addition, in 2006 the Supreme Court affirmed that the United States must abide by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of all prisoners.

The rule of law is a fundamental principle upon which our republic was founded, the foundation of our free society. Excusing individuals at the highest levels of government from adhering to the rule of law is a dangerous precedent. If they are given a pass, their successors will feel free to follow the same path.

Sen. Lamar Alexander threatened Democrats with an investigation into their own wrongdoing if they persist in prosecuting the torture crowd. Let me make this perfectly clear, Senator, this is not about revenge. My view of torture is not a “liberal” view it is a moral and legal view. If there are Democrats who were complicit in turning this country to the dark side, they deserve the same punishment as members of the other party. So bring it on.

Throughout the history of this country there have been those who thought we had to violate the Constitution in order to take care of some real or imagined threat. The following quotation by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis is from his dissent in a 1928 illegal government wiretapping case, but could well apply to our present situation.

“Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means—to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal—would bring terrible retribution.”

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