Civil liberties and partisan politics

Civil liberties have been under attack in the United States, but many seem to have forgotten that the Clinton administration was as active an attacker as any (ditto for Tony Blair in the UK). And during those years, it was a constant vexation that so few of my friends thought it cause for concern. Clinton was their man -- how could he do them wrong?

Now Democrats have taken up the civil liberties banner, yet partisan blindness still prevails -- as is neatly illustrated by an article in today's NY Times on a Saudi grad student in Idaho being prosecuted under the Patriot Act. Key passage follows:

Idaho, one of the most Republican states, has become an unlikely home of opposition to the act.

Allies are where you find them -- but you won't find them if you don't look.

The state's senior senator, the Republican Larry E. Craig, and Representative C. L. Otter, also a Republican, have sponsored bills to amend the act, which they have called a threat to civil liberties.

Mr. Hussayen's lead lawyer, David Nevin, is best known for his defense in 1993 of Kevin Harris, who was involved in a standoff with government agents at a cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, along with Randall C. Weaver. That case, in which Mr. Weaver's wife and teenage son were shot and killed by government agents, is a cause célebre among mainly right-leaning civil libertarians.

. . . and therefore isn't among mainly left-leaning civil libertarians. Shouldn't we all try to look beyond party politics here?

Posted by David on April 27, 2004 2:14 PM