Killing Civil Liberties One Emergency At A Time (Part 1)
Life Without Liberty Is Like A Body Without Spirit
(Khalil Gibran)
What are Civil liberties? The definition I use is: “they’re liberties protected by our Constitution.” They’re not “constitutional rights” or “liberties provided for by the Constitution”. They are OUR liberties that the Constitution protects by prohibiting the government from infringing on them. In other words, civil liberties are liberties we inherently have – they are given to us by our creator, or if you prefer by virtue of being born. But I think that is only partially correct.
The Constitution in-and-of itself is in reality only parchment and words – neither of which on its own can protect anything. It’s the American people who give the Constitution life – its ability to prevent the government from infringing on our civil liberties. The greater attention Americans pay to the Constitution, the more secure our liberties. Conversely, the less attention Americans pay to the Constitution, the less secure are our liberties. Unfortunately, this is a lesson we seem to have to relearn every couple of decades.
I was going to address this problem in a single article, alas as I started putting thought to paper, I realized that it would have to be a series. There are just too many times our government has used “emergency” – both real and make believe – to convince Americans, or at least attempt to convince Americans, that they should not pay attention to the Constitution, and instead they should grant the government more leeway over the Constitution than they should have. Once the people explicitly or implicitly grant the government that leeway, the government starts to nibble away at our civil liberties – a little here, a little there until poof they’re gone. Don’t believe me? Let’s start with the second President – John Adams.
The first use of an “emergency” to revoke our civil liberties, that I’m aware of, occurred in 1798 – a mere 10 years after the Constitution was adopted and only 7 years after the Bill of Rights was ratified – when the Alien and Sedition Acts were pushed through Congress by President John Adams. These acts were a series of four laws, all of which were horrendous, but those enacted as part of the Sedition Act were the most destructive to our civil liberties.
The “emergency” used by Adams to justify these laws was the deteriorating relations and the possibility of war with France. However, a major factor, if not the primary factor underlying the passage of these laws was that the Jefferson led Democratic-Republican party was gaining in popularity and challenging Adam’s Federalist party for control of the government. In response Adam led the charge in passing the Sedition Act, which made it a crime to make any “false, scandalous and malicious writing” against Congress or the president. It also made it illegal to conspire “to oppose any measure or measures of the government.” (emphasis mine). Of course, Congress and the presidency were in the hands of Adams and the Federalist party, which meant that the Federalists made it a crime to criticize the Federalists. Simply put the Federalists invoked an “emergency” – that war with France might occur – in an attempt to remain in power by gutting the First Amendment.
As it turns out the Sedition Act was used exclusively to prosecute and imprison political opponents of the Federalist party…with a vengeance. Between its passage on June 18, 1798, and March 3, 1801 when Adams left office at least 26 individuals including editors of Democratic-Republican newspapers and opposing politicians were prosecuted.
Matthew Lyon is perhaps the most famous person prosecuted, or more accurately -persecuted, under the Sedition Act. He was a Democratic- Republican congressman from Vermont running for reelection and has the distinction of being the first person tried under the Sedition Act. His crime? “[P]ublishing letters in Democratic-Republican newspapers during his reelection campaign that showed “‘intent and design’” to defame the government and President Adams…” For the “crime” of criticizing the government he was sentenced to four months in jail and fined $1,000 ($24,853 in 2023 dollars). At least Lyon put his time in jail to good use – he won his reelection bid while sitting in his jail cell. Is history the fortune teller of the future?
Under the guises of an “emergency” to prepare for a potential war with France, the government passed a set of laws that gutted the First Amendment and then used those laws to persecute and imprison political opponents in an attempt to remain in power.
Fortunately, Americans were having none of this nonsense back in the day and during the 1800 elections voted Adams – an ardent patriot – out and Jefferson in, the Sedation Act expired and was not renewed and many of the other more offensive laws of the Alien Act were repealed. But do Americans have the resolve to do today what we did in 1800?
When I talk to people today, many of them view the Constitution and civil liberties through partisan glasses. A few examples, when I point out that:
Under President Biden, the government engaged in industrial scale suppression of our free speech rights on social media, those on the left will irrationally deny the evidence or attack Trump over the January 6 (J6) riots in an attempt to justify or deny the government’s attack on free speech.
Trump was the one who initiated the COVID lock downs, which I believe violated the First Amendment’s right to peaceably assemble (and were both ineffective and catastrophically bad for our children’s education and mental health as well as our economy) and I’m accused by the right of being an idiot and ironically a communist. (see Missouri v Biden, 5th Cir Sec. II “Factual Background” (pgs 4-86))
“Hate speech” – however it is defined is protected speech. I’m accused by the left of being a racist, and ironically a fascist. (Matal v Tam SC (2017))
Congresswoman M. Taylor Green is wrong for making over the top statements in support of unconstitutional acts – like seceding from the union – and I’m criticized by the right as being a communist.
Governor Grisham of New Mexico signed an unconstitutional executive order that violates the Second Amendment as well as New Mexico’s Constitution (Art II, Sec 6) and the left irrationally screams it’s her duty to do so, I’m soft on crime, and ironically again that I’m a fascist who needs to shut up. (also see: New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022)).
That the press is the biggest spreaders of disinformation/misinformation, and the left accuses me of being a, yes you guessed it- a far right fascist extremist.
Point is, Americans are not paying attention to our Constitution and demanding the government stay within its boundaries. Instead, many are trying to justify the unconstitutional acts of those they support in an effort to keep their preferred politicians and party in power. And the preferred politicians are only too happy to use that leeway Americans have given them to ignore the Constitution in order to stay in power by suppressing our civil liberties.
It’s our choice. Man-up and vote those who violate, or propose to violate our civil liberties protected by the Constitution out of office like they did in 1800, or watch our civil liberties be nibbled away until they are gone…time is running out, make a decision – partisan politics or civil liberties.