Taking Back Our Constitutional Rights

July 6, 2009, San Pedro, CA

Marcy Winograd

Here are the written comments of the July 4, 2009, speech delivered by Marcy Winograd at the Liberty Hill tribute in San Pedro:

Thank you to the San Pedro Neighbors for Peace and Justice for inviting me here today, July 4, 2009, to commemorate the founding of the monument to Liberty Hill and to reflect on the state of our union as it regards the precarious nature of our constitutional rights. Thank you local historian Art Almeida for having the vision, the plan, and the tenacity to ensure that this monument be built to remind America of what happened on the early evening of May 15, 1923, when one of the nation’s foremost writers, Upton Sinclair, stood to speak on behalf of 3,000 striking longshoremen. No sooner had Sinclair begun reading the Bill of Rights--Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech--when he was arrested by the LAPD and then held incommunicado for four days. Despite Sinclair’s arrest, the longshoremen won the right to organize and the chief of police left office in disgrace, forced to resign. The demonstration here at Liberty Hill became an historical moment marking the rebirth of the labor movement.

Today, as we stand here at Liberty Hill, let us commit ourselves to a rebirth of the United States Constitution--make it a living document, not something we buried and forgot about it during the waning days of the Bush administration.

We know that last year the American people voted for change. After years of war and occupation in Iraq, voters went to the polls to bring our troops home and to end many of the constitutional violations that became synonymous with the Bush White House; undeclared war, yet war nonetheless; torture; kidnapping; suspension of due process and the rule of law; warrantless spying; watch lists.

Enough.

The American people said, “Enough!”

Prior to President Obama taking office, I invited a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union to speak to the Los Angeles County Democratic Party to present the ACLU’s 100 Day wish list agenda for our next President. This wish list asked the President to issue executive orders, with the stroke of a pen, to prohibit torture--water boarding, stress positions, sexual humiliation--to order the release of all documents relating to that torture, so that the Congress and the American people could have a full accounting, and to establish a special counsel to investigate and prosecute, if need be, violations of federal laws prohibiting torture. The ACLU’s wish list also called for President Obama to order the closing of Guantanamo, the transfer of prisoners to the United States, and the implementation of due process. The ACLU asked for an end to warrantless wiretapping, for an end to kidnapping in foreign countries, where people, so-called suspects in the perpetual war on terror, are whisked off the street and locked up in a country where torture is routine.

As we stand here today, reflecting on the constitutional rights eroded during the Bush years, we know attention is turned elsewhere--and it is understandable given that many are most concerned with survival right now, with holding on to their homes, be they homes they own or homes they rent; we know that the state of California is issuing IOU’s because our Governor refuses to sign a budget unless he can balance it on the backs of the blind, the disabled, the school children, and the elderly; we know that unemployment threatens virtually all sectors of our economy and that with the loss of jobs comes the loss of health care, a necessity some 90,000,000 Americans are either lacking, in whole or in part.
So it is understandable that the American people, by and large, do not have the luxury of focusing on the loss and much-needed restoration of our constitutional rights.

But, today, on the 4th of July, on a day when Americans celebrate the founding of this nation and its underlying principles, it behooves us to take a closer look, to really examine the state of our union on constitutional rights.

What’s the score?

At the outset of his administration, President Obama signs an executive order pledging to open government and close Guantanamo. But in order to close Guantanamo, he must transfer the prisoners to the United States. A right-wing talk radio and Fox News backlash whips up a fearful frenzy that men, prisoners who have yet to be charged with a crime, will endanger us all should they be locked in a maximum security prison within our borders. The challenge of where to house the prisoners and how to prosecute them looms large for the Obama White House. Meanwhile, Guantanamo remains open--as does the notorious prison in Afghanistan--Bagram--a so-called black hole--where prisoners report being forced to stand for 16 days before their legs collapse.

Soon after taking office, President Obama also issues an executive order requiring the CIA to close its secret detention facilities and to give the International Committee of the Red Cross access to detainees. There is, however, a troublesome loophole--a special taskforce is set up to examine the practice of transferring detainees to third countries, with guarantees that they will not be subject to torture. What this means is that the practice of rendition or kidnapping may continue.

On Feb. 9 the Obama administration invokes state secrets privilege in a case involving extraordinary rendition, arguing the details of the rendition must not be disclosed for fear of jeopardizing state secrets. It also invokes the state secrets argument to block the release of documents relating to the massive illegal warrantless wiretapping program conducted under the Bush Administration. The Bush administration invoked state secrets privilege 20 times in its first six years; the Obama administration used it twice in its first 60 days.

On a positive note, the Obama administration calls for the release of legal memos on torture--but then refuses to release photos documenting the use of torture and waffles on whether those at the highest levels who ordered the torture will ever be prosecuted.

On a troubling note, our government bars detainees in the Bagram prison from being able to legally challenge their imprisonment. Like the prisoners in Gauantanamo, many of the Bagram prisoners are kidnapped in other countries, far from a war zone, and are held without charges, in legal limbo.
Former President Bush issued 800 signing statements. When a bill was passed, he often signed a statement saying he would not enforce the law.

These signing statements made President Bush a king, rather than a President; someone who operated above the law in unitary executive fashion--in a way that said the President is more powerful than either the legislative or judicial branch. The unitary executive theory and its attendant signing statements symbolized one of the greatest threats to our democracy because it made other branches, the checks and balances in our government, obsolete.

President Obama has issued seven signing statements, the most recent in connection with the just-passed 100-billion dollar supplemental war appropriation for Iraq occupation and the escalation in Afghanistan. This most recent signing statement says our President need not heed the congressional call to honor labor or environmental standards when signing agreements with leaders of other nations.

Just as former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt urged Americans to make him create the Works Progress Administration--a program that employed millions building roads and bridges, telling the narratives of freed slaves, painting the murals of the labor movement--just as Roosevelt urged Americans to make him establish social security so that Americans would be protected in their sunset years--so, too, President Obama has called on you, on me, on the American people to make him do it, make him do whatever it is we know must be done to save and protect this nation. Consequently, at this moment, at this pivotal juncture in our history, we must make our President join us in the fight to restore our constitutional rights.

We must point out that violations of our rights are perpetrated in the service of arms merchants and ideologies of the past, in the belief that war will bring peace, that occupations will bring security, that world hegemony will bring friends to our door.

Again, this is the thinking of the past, not of the future.

We must restore our constitutional rights, end unnecessary war and occupation, recommit ourselves to the principles to the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Conventions which outlaw torture and uphold the rule of law.

Let a new day dawn.

May this July 4th celebrate not just the independence of a new nation, but the independence of thought and a declaration of independence from policies that undermine our safety and security in the world.
We, the people, can only reclaim our freedoms--the right to free speech, the right to privacy, the right to due process, the right to know the charges leveled against us--if we tell the truth about the state of our constitutional rights, regardless of who sits in the White House. We, the people, can only reclaim our standing in the world if we have a full accounting for the crimes of the Bush administration and a commitment to prosecute those at the highest level of government responsible for perpetrating those crimes.

The American people of today, like the courageous union members who came yesterday to Liberty Hill, can triumph. The power is ours.

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Taking Back Our Constitutional Rights

July 6, 2009, San Pedro, CA