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Civil Liberties: Law
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Bernstein challenges the now-widespread notion that the goal of eradicating discrimination is sufficient grounds for ignoring a person's civil liberties. Bernstein writes, "The primary rationale for antidiscrimination law is no longer bringing previously marginalized groups into the economic mainstream. Rather, antidiscrimination laws are justified on the ground that the offense taken by people who face discrimination is an especially serious moral harm-so serious, in fact, that even antidiscrimination laws with no direct economic impact should be exempted from the Constitution's protection of civil liberties." Moreover, a system that holds the civil liberties of the citizens to be expendable to less than the most vital ends, is one whose citizens' freedoms are in a precarious position. He writes:
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After September 11, a consensus emerged that, as much as possible, the war on terrorism should be waged without the civil liberties violations that have occurred in prior crises. For example, one of the nations’ worst overreactions to a national emergency occurred after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when the U.S. government evacuated more than 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast and held them in internment camps. In the wake of September 11, U.S. leaders took active steps to avoid a similar episode. “How different [from the atmosphere after the attack on Pearl Harbor],” writes Harvard law professor Laurence H. Tribe, “was the sight of New York’s Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, soon followed by President Bush, appealing eloquently to Americans not to seek revenge on their fellow citizens who happened to be Muslims.”
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ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Information superhighway or not, the automotive industry is on a clear collision course with civil liberties. Already, onboard data about how a vehicle is driven can be and are being downloaded without the knowledge or consent of the driver. That information is being studied by fleet owners, inspected by law enforcement, and even being subpoenaed into courts of law.
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While the United Kingdom has no codified constitution, relying on a number of legal conventions and pieces of legislation, it is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights which covers both human rights and civil liberties. The Human Rights Act 1998 incorporates the great majority of Convention rights directly into UK law. Britain has what is called an unwriten constitution: centuries of legislation and legal precident dating back to before the magna carta guarantee the rights of her subjects.
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In general, a majority of Americans have been comfortable with the current level of government intrusion on civil liberties as part of the war on terrorism. The strong majority of Americans believe the Patriot Act needs only minor changes, at best. Slightly less than one-third would make major changes or eliminate the law completely.
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Consistently throughout, Bernstein shows that the use of antidiscrimination laws in ways that interfere with someone else's civil liberties is not isolated to a single part of the political spectrum. It is not only Democrats who are guilty of the abuse, but Republicans as well. Indeed, both left and right-wingers have advanced and used antidiscrimination law in ways that violate others' most basic Constitutional liberties, including the right to freedom of speech.
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