Pubdate: Sat, 17 Nov 2001
Source: Watertown Daily Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 Watertown Daily Times
Contact:  http://www.wdt.net
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/792
Author: Christopher Brauchli
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ashcroft.htm (Ashcroft, John)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

ASHCROFT'S AGENDA UNDERMINES STATES' RIGHTS, CIVIL LIBERTIES

"The struggle to establish civil liberties against the backdrop of these 
security threats, while difficult, promises to build bulwarks to help 
guarantee that a nation fighting for its survival does not sacrifice those 
national values that make the fight worthwhile."

	-William J. Brennan, Speech delivered to Law School of Hebrew University, 
Jerusalem, Israel, December 22, 1987.

Just because Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department and its 
assorted enforcement agencies have been unable to locate the source of the 
anthrax does not mean they haven't been busy. During October Mr. Ashcroft 
took steps to remind the country of the agenda that is closest to his heart 
(after figuring out who the terrorists are and where the anthrax came from).

In California drug enforcement personnel began an all-out assault on 
marijuana being distributed to seriously ill people to ease their suffering.

DEA Agents (who work for the attorney general) uprooted a marijuana garden 
grown by patients, seized the files of a doctor and lawyer who recommended 
the drug for thousands of sick people and spent six hours in a raid on the 
Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center.  There was more to the raids than 
simply relieving ill patients of a drug that was relieving their suffering.

Susan Dryden, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, explained: "The 
recent enforcement is indicative that we have not lost our priorities in 
other areas since September 11." That was not the only evidence of 
priorities recalled, especially those that affect the dying in whom Mr. 
Ashcroft seems to have a peculiar interest.

During the first week in November Mr. Ashcroft issued an opinion that 
authorizes federal drug agents (when they are not tearing up gardens in Los 
Angeles) to identify and punish doctors who prescribe federally controlled 
drugs to help terminally ill patients die. In his memorandum to Asa 
Hutchinson, the DEA chief, he said assisting in a suicide is not a 
"legitimate medical purpose" under federal law.

That opinion effectively bars Oregon physicians from legally prescribing 
narcotics to help patients commit suicide, something that is permitted 
under the state's Death With Dignity Act.

Oregon voters approved the Act in both 1994 and 1997 but Mr. Ashcroft 
assumes that they did not know what they were doing, and, if they did, he 
as attorney general knows better. Those acts were not enough to satisfy Mr. 
Ashcroft's craving for conservative credentials.

At the end of October the anti-terrorism bill he enthusiastically supported 
was passed. It contains provisions that combat terrorism while 
simultaneously combating civil liberties. The Act has been baptized the 
U.S.A. Patriot Act. It empowers the government to shift the primary mission 
of the FBI from solving crimes to gathering domestic intelligence.

Intelligence gathering by the FBI was one of the first victims of the 
post-Watergate era. At the conclusion of the 1975 Senate investigation into 
abuses of domestic intelligence-gathering against political activists, Sen 
Frank Church said domestic intelligence-gathering was a "new form of 
governmental power" that was not constrained by law.

One of the resulting reforms was the segregation within the FBI of the 
bureau's criminal investigation function and its intelligence-gathering 
against foreign spies and international terrorists.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) permits the FBI to 
carry out wiretaps and searches that would be unconstitutional if they were 
designed to obtain evidence but are permitted if designed to gather 
intelligence.

In order to guard against abuse, the attorney general was required to 
certify to a court that the "primary purpose" of a proposed wiretap was to 
listen in on a specific foreign spy or terrorist. The new law simply 
requires a showing that "a significant purpose" of the tap is to listen in 
on a specific foreign spy or terrorist.

Commenting on the bill, Senator Patrick Leahy, said: "The bill enters new 
and uncharted territory by breaking down traditional barriers between law 
enforcement and foreign intelligence."

The law also permits the FBI to give grand jury information to the CIA 
without a court order, a dramatic change from the former rule that said 
prosecutors could only share federal grand jury evidence with other federal 
agencies if they had a court order.

Ashcroft cut short his testimony before the Judiciary Committee in support 
of the bill and then declined to attend two additional Senate hearings for 
closer questioning. He was probably busy with the marijuana and Oregon 
matters. Those were not the only matters he might have been busy with.

During the first week in November he decided that it was OK for folks in 
the Justice Department to listen in on phone conversations that lawyers 
have with clients in federal custody and to intercept mail between lawyers 
and clients in custody even though those communications are confidential.

That rule applies to people in custody regardless of whether or not they 
have been charged with a crime. Some people might consider that the 
equivalent of denying persons in custody of the right to counsel. Not to worry.

The attorney general will violate the right of an individual to be 
represented by counsel only if he thinks "that reasonable suspicion exists 
to believe that an inmate may use communications with attorneys or their 
agents to facilitate acts of terrorism."

The folks listening in will, according to the Justice Department, only 
disclose what they hear to federal prosecutors or investigators if a 
federal judge approves, unless the department thinks acting without 
approval is necessary to thwart an imminent act of violence or terrorism.

It's been a busy time for Ashcroft. It's been an even busier few weeks for 
states' rights and civil rights. States' rights know how busy it has been. 
Civil rights may not yet be aware of how busy it has been for them. They'll 
soon find out. So, unfortunately, will the rest of us.

(Christopher Brauchli is a lawyer in Boulder, Colo.)
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jackl