Legal Commentary

Palin's Miranda Bashing

By TChris

Kudos to the New York Times editorialists for calling attention to an issue of critical importance to TalkLeft and to Americans who care about the Constitution:

“Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights,” Ms. Palin said. Mr. Obama, in reality, wants to give basic human rights to prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, only a handful of whom are Qaeda members, and shield them from torture. So, once upon a time, did Mr. McCain, but there was no mention of that in St. Paul, or of the bill he wrote protecting those prisoners.

"Miranda" is a conservative code word for "stupid rights that unfairly keep criminals from being brought to justice." Miranda has nothing to do with rendition, with never-ending detention in the absence of probable cause, with tortured confessions, or with sham trials based on secret evidence that fail to provide due process. Miranda has nothing to do with the unconstitutional suspension of habeas corpus. Those are the rights John McCain and Sarah Palin are denigrating, and those are the rights that Barack Obama has repeatedly pledged to protect.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 05, 2008 (boomark / email).