Civil Liberties Watershed Nears in Congress;
ACLU Calls on House and Senate to Reject Terrorism Legislation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, April 15, 1996
WASHINGTON -- Saying that Congress was on the verge of making
fundamental decisions about how our democracy will function in the next
century, the American Civil Liberties Union today strongly urged that
House and Senate conferees reject President Clinton's call for counter
terrorism legislation that would gut the Bill of Rights.
"Although politicians of both parties are using the anniversary of
the tragedy in Oklahoma City to push the counter terrorism legislation,
nothing in the various bills in Congress would prevent another bombing,"
said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU's National Washington Office.
"In fact, many of the proposals now before Congress have previously been
discredited, and ultimately rejected by legislators.
"The terrible tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing should not be
marked one year later by adoption of legislation that would tear at the
fabric of our society and make us no safer, just less free," Murphy said.
"Congress cannot allow the American people and the guarantees of the Bill
of Rights to become the next victims of terrorism."
The ACLU called on Congress to specifically reject the provisions
in the counter terrorism legislation that would give the government
additional power to:
-- Incarcerate and execute innocent men and women under the guise of
"reforming" the right of habeas corpus.
-- Use secret evidence in deportation proceedings.
-- Designate groups "terrorist" organizations and thereby bar their
members from the U.S. and bar Americans from supporting their legal
activities.
-- Create an overly broad new crime of "terrorism" that would risk
selective prosecution based on political opinions.
-- Summarily deport legitimate refugees who arrived without adequate
travel documents and seek political asylum.
-- Use the FBI to investigate activity protected by the First
Amendment even without evidence of criminal activity.
Transmitted: 4/15/96 5:06 PM (n041596a)
--
Stanton McCandlish
mech@eff.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Online Activist