The Obama Administration and the Bill of Rights
Sadly, I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that the Obama Administration has an extraordinarily low regard for some of our most fundamental freedoms. This conclusion is not based on any one incident, but on the accumulation of many small incidents. This is also not to suggest that the Obama Administration is on the verge of creating a secret police or anything resembling the totalitarian visions of our nightmares. But there comes a point where it becomes clear that concerns for certain freedoms simply are not entering into the decisionmaking process.
To be sure, Obama’s been better than Bush on Guantanamo Bay, torture, the Fourth Amendment, and medical marijuana raids. Then again, “better than Bush” is a low bar on these issues, especially when you consider that these are issues that by and large played a key role in his getting the nomination and eventually winning office. What has frustrated me far more about the Obama Administration, however, has been its performance on civil liberties issues that are less important to the liberal base of the Democratic Party. This performance suggests that the Obama Administration’s interest in Constitutional liberties goes little further than is needed to keep the liberal base happy.
What are these small incidents? In no particular order: [Read more →]
October 23, 2009 59 Comments
