ACLU To Clinton:
       Veto Terrorism Bill, Preserve Our  Greatest Liberty'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 18, 1996

     WASHINGTON -- In an open letter to President Clinton, the American 
Civil Liberties Union today called on the President to reject the 
terrorism bill and preserve the authority of the federal courts to 
enforce the Bill of Rights.

     The ACLU said that the terrorism legislation contains a number of 
unconstitutional provisions, including the use of secret evidence in 
deportation proceedings. Most disturbing, however, the ACLU said, are the 
provisions -- also of questionable constitutionality -- that will tear 
the heart out of the great writ of habeas corpus, a bedrock feature of 
the American justice system.

     In the letter -- signed by ACLU President Nadine Strossen and ACLU 
Executive Director Ira Glasser -- the ACLU said that the terrorism 
legislation "would strip the federal courts of their authority and 
responsibility to enforce the Bill of Rights -- not just in death penalty 
cases, but in all criminal cases." Contrary to common wisdom, only 1 
percent of habeas petitions are filed by prisoners on death row.

     "Responsibility for defining the very meaning of the Constitution 
would be given over to the states via a provision that would require 
Federal judges to defer to state court decisions on Constitutional claims 
-- even if those decisions are wrong," the letter said. "This is an 
agenda that has everything to do with weakening civil rights and nothing 
to do with combatting terrorism."

     Strossen and Glasser said that habeas corpus has survived persistent 
attacks from the last three Republican Presidents. They asked that 
President Clinton "not allow the fundamental right of habeas to be 
crippled during your Administration."

     "The Great Writ must endure, if we are to endure as a free nation," 
the ACLU leaders concluded. "Please do not allow a law that cripples 
habeas to be your legacy, Mr. President."

Letter to the President

April 17, 1996      

President Bill Clinton
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, we write to urge you to 
protect the Great Writ of Habeas Corpus by vetoing the anti-terrorism 
legislation currently being considered by Congress.

Congress has not given you the bill you wanted; now they have given you 
something else you don't want -- provisions that do nothing to stop the 
threat of terrorism and everything to destroy a bedrock feature of the 
American justice system -- the writ of habeas corpus. Alexander Hamilton 
described habeas corpus as the greatest liberty of all, which the 
Constitution, through the Suspension Clause, "provided for in the most 
ample manner."  

The legislation before you would strip the federal courts of their 
authority and responsibility to enforce the Bill of Rights -- not just in 
death penalty cases, but in all criminal cases. Responsibility for 
defining the very meaning of the Constitution would be given over to the 
states via a provision that would require Federal judges to defer to 
state court decisions on Constitutional claims -- even if those state 
decisions are wrong. 

This is an agenda that has everything to do with weakening civil rights 
and nothing do with combatting terrorism.  Congress, eager to strip the 
federal judiciary of its historic role in the protection of 
Constitutional rights, is using the momentum of your anti-terrorism 
initiative as the vehicle for achieving this fundamental change in our 
legal system. 

As the one-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing approaches, we 
know that there is enormous pressure to see a bill passed.  But this bill 
is no memorial to the victims of the bombing -- rather, it compromises 
fairness for all Americans, without providing any protection against what 
happened in Oklahoma City.  Surely you must know this, Mr. President.  
The anti-terrorism bill is being used to extort your support for an 
agenda we know you oppose.  

The Great Writ of habeas corpus has survived persistent attacks from the 
three last Republican Administrations; we ask that you not allow the 
fundamental right of habeas to be crippled during your Administration. 

As the late Justice Thurgood Marshall observed, "when we allow 
fundamental freedoms to be sacrificed in the name of real or perceived 
emergency, we invariably regret it."  

The anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing will live in memory as a day 
of loss and mourning.  We urge you, Mr. President, not to make April 19 
the anniversary of another great tragedy -- the loss of basic 
constitutional rights for all Americans. 

Justice Marshall also wrote:  "History teaches that grave threats to 
liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem 
too extravagant to endure."  The need to uphold constitutional rights 
even -- indeed, especially -- in times of crisis has been repeatedly 
reaffirmed by Justices across the ideological spectrum.  Most recently, 
for example, last June, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor echoed Justice 
Marshall's sentiments: "It cannot be too often stated that the greatest 
threats our constitutional freedoms come in times of crisis."  

 The Great Writ must endure, if we are to endure as a free nation.   
Please do not allow a law that  cripples habeas to be your legacy, Mr. 
President. 

Sincerely, 

Ira Glasser
Executive Director

Nadine Strossen
President





Transmitted: 4/18/96 3:43 PM (n041896a)

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