Standing up for the Constitution
This is exactly the kind of attitude I was hoping to see from a former constitutional law professor.
Referring to Obama at the RNC, Sarah Palin said, “Al-Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America and he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.” It gave me chills and made me have to step away from the TV, but Obama has responded like the educated and intelligent person he is.
Calling it “the foundation of Anglo-American law,” he said the principle “says very simply: If the government grabs you, then you have the right to at least ask, ‘Why was I grabbed?’ And say, ‘Maybe you’ve got the wrong person.’”
The safeguard is essential, Obama continued, “because we don’t always have the right person.”
“We don’t always catch the right person,” he said. “We may think it’s Mohammed the terrorist, but it might be Mohammed the cab driver. You might think it’s Barack the bomb-thrower, but it might be Barack the guy running for president.”
It might defy our instincts. It might be a bit nuanced. It might require us to read something — and for a few of us, require the assistance of a dictionary. (Who would have expected a presidential candidate to throw around Latin phrases like habeas corpus as though he knows what they mean?!) But it’s exactly those qualities that make me proud of this speech. Rather than play to our fears and herd mentality, Obama is inviting us to think about why our laws say what they say, and why laws shouldn’t be disregarded whenever we feel hysterical. I think he deserves a lot of praise and attention for taking the intellectual stance in a time when “intellectual” is almost as dirty a word as “liberal.”
I like the dash of self-deprecating humor as well. It nicely underscores the ridiculousness of those smears.