September 19, 2007: Call to Restore Habeas and the Fourth Amendment!

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On Wednesday, September 19, we are asking you to join a National Call-in to Congress to reassert Fourth Amendment guards against unchecked government surveillance and the constitutionally guaranteed right of habeas corpus against two flatly unconstitutional laws – the Protect America Act (PAA) and the Military Commissions Act (MCA). The moment now is crucial, because this fall Congress plans to revisit their legalization of warrantless wiretapping and the stripping of habeas corpus. This is our chance to tell them, as part of a large national voice, that they must restore constitutional rights!

Each of the national coalition members listed below is urging its members to call Congress on a specific day. BORDC’s day is Wednesday, September 19. Please do your part to make the phones ring in the halls of Congress on Wednesday – and all-week long! Help us assess our national impact by reporting back how many calls you made and how they went. We’ll report to Congress how many people spoke out on these two issues.

In This Page:

Background

MCA -- Several bills have already been introduced to correct the worst excesses of the MCA, but none has made it to the House or Senate floor for a vote. See BORDC’s legislation page for summaries of current bills. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO-4th), chair of the House Armed Services Committees, is chief sponsor of H.R. 2826, to restore habeas corpus, which both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Armed Services Committee will soon be considering. With their support, the bill would go the House floor for a vote.
PAA -- House and Senate leadership have promised to “fix” the “Protect America Act” as early as this month. Your calls to your members of Congress may make the difference between cosmetic changes and a bill that restores our Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

See How Your Representatives Voted

Check these online roll call votes to see how your rep voted on these two egregious bills. We need to thank members of Congress who opposed the bills and to hold those who supported them, or who did not vote, accountable for restoring constitutional protections.
Military Commissions Act (S. 3930):

Protect America Act (S. 1927) here:

Sample Call Script

Your conversation may go something like this:

Staffer: Hi, this is Senator/Representative _____’s office.

You: Hello, this is [Your Name], from (Senator/Representative ______’s) district. I am calling today because I am very disappointed that Congress rushed to pass the Protect America Act before its August recess, without getting answers or key documents from the administration about its domestic surveillance programs. The Protect America Act guts the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was passed in 1978 to protect Americans from warrantless domestic surveillance by the executive branch. Congress must repeal this unconstitutional law.

Staffer: I’ll be sure to pass that on.

You: One more thing. The Military Commissions Act denies non-U.S. citizens in U.S. custody the right to challenge their detentions before an impartial judge. The Military Commissions Act removed that right, undermining the presumption of innocence that used to guide our legal system, and allowing indefinite detentions without due process. This unconstitutional law must also be repealed. Please support the Restoring the Constitution Act and any other strong bill that restores the right of habeas corpus, such as the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act or Representative Ike Skelton’s bill, H.R. 2826, which has recently been introduced in the House. Thank you.

Staffer: Okay, I’ll be sure to let my boss know.

Additional Talking Points for Overturning MCA and Restoring Habeas Corpus

Evidence has been shown that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals are set up to make sure the detainees are declared “enemy combatants.” Evidence that would clear the detainee is excluded. Our government has violated the detainees' human rights by making it up as it goes along. It is beyond time that we restore longstanding international standards, including at a minimum habeas corpus for all detainees.
Congress must do the following:
- Restore habeas corpus and due process for all human beings in U.S. Custody.
- End torture and secret prisons.
- Disallow testimony induced by torture or coercion.
- Investigate wrongdoing and ensure those who broke the law are held accountable.
- Make the United States comply with the Geneva Conventions.
- Support the Restoring the Constitution Act, S. 576 in the Senate and HR 1415 in the House.
- Stop so-called "extraordinary rendition" flights where people are secretly kidnapped and sent to countries that torture.
- Support the “Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act,” HR 1352 in the House.
- Close the Guantánamo Bay detention center and provide all detainees with access to lawyers and speedy trials.
- Support Guantánamo Bay, Cuba Detention Center Closure Act of 2007, S. 1469 (or S. 1249) in the Senate, and HR 2212 in the House.

Read more on what the Military Commissions Act does.

Additional Talking points for Overturning PAA and Restoring Fourth Amendment Protections

The President's warrantless wiretapping program went on illegally for 6 years. In January 2007, President Bush suddenly announced he would submit wiretap requests via the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Then in August, he insisted that Congress legalize warrantless wiretapping on disgraced Attorney General Gonzales' orders, completely removing even the slimmest oversight. Congress must hold the Administration accountable for its past law breaking, not legalize this illegal surveillance.
According to the Congressional Research Service, Congress has made more than 50 changes to FISA since the law was originally passed in1978 including many updates since September 11, 2001. So, all the talk about FISA's antiquated dial-telephone laws needing to come into the 21st century is false. Because the U.S. is a communications hub, and overseas calls transit the U.S., the White House claimed it needed this law so it could continue its legal pursuit of wiretapping foreign calls. If that kind of change was needed, the bill could have consisted of this simple sentence: "No warrant shall be required under FISA if the sole basis for issuing the warrant is that the communication would transit the US."
When the government subjects Americans' phone calls to massive and non-specific wiretaps, it may also be sharing our calls with other governments or entities. Before considering a change in the law, Congress should have asked: "Has the National Security Agency ever lost control of its surveillance system?" For a fuller account of this potential risk, see NPR's "Wiretapping in the Digital Age" (August 17, 2007).
Though the law is set to expire in six months, the Attorney General's wiretapping orders can last for a year.
We know from long experience that occasionally, government officials make errors or act maliciously. Without oversight from another branch of government, the risks to our liberties are too great. Currently, there is no oversight outside the executive branch, and we know from the widespread misuse and abuse of National Security Letters that checks and balances are crucial to maintaining honest government.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid have said they'll make changes in the law that was hurriedly passed in August -- when they return to D.C. in September. But a few changes here and there are not enough! Until our Congress demands accountability, and restores checks and balances, we will continue to live in fear that our government is looking over our shoulder. So, Congress must get tough on restoring our Bill of Rights now!
The White House must be compelled to release documents created by White House, National Security Agency and Department of Justice lawyers justifying the so-called "Terrorist Surveillance Program." The American people have the right to know how this executive branch legally justified warrantless surveillance against its own people.
412 local governments have passed resolutions opposing government overreaches of power, unwarranted searches, and detentions without trial. It's time the Congress heeds the will of the American people, and starts restoring civil liberties lost during the past 6 years.

Other organizations supporting the call-in week (partial list):

The Alliance for Justice, American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, Council on American-Islamic Relations, DownsizeDC.org, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights First, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, No2Torture Network, People For the American Way, and Religious Action Center.

Report Form

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