From: Greg Burch (gregburch@gregburch.net)
Date: Fri Aug 23 2002 - 04:25:09 MDT
A quick note from this morning's news on this thread:
"Special Court Rejects Ashcroft Rules"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50967-2002Aug22.html
"WASHINGTON -- A special court that oversees sensitive law enforcement
surveillance forced Attorney General John Ashcroft to change his
guidelines for FBI terrorism searches and wiretaps, according to
documents released Thursday."
The legal process almost always works on a different pace than that of
the news media's "24-hour news cycles" and the executive and legislative
branches reaction to events. It's not even a year since 911. Major
legal issues usually take much longer to work their way through the many
feedback mechanisms of the over-all constitutional legal system in the
"anglosphere". Two to ten years is a more realistic time period to look
at for the development of constitutional legal issues. Therefore, I
think much of the alarm regarding encroachments on civil liberties may
ultimately be premature. Until the courts have had their final say, we
really won't know what the constitutional impact of the reaction to 911
is.
This delay can be painful for the individuals involved and is often not
understood by folks outside the legal system and, especially, by those
who don't live in countries that trace their political culture back to
England. But the truth is that we can't know what the ultimate impact
is until all of these mechanisms have had a chance to operate.
Greg Burch
Vice-President, Extropy Institute
http://www.gregburch.net
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