Yesterday, in a highly mischaracterized case, the Supreme Court took away an essential right.
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It has been INCORRECTLY headlined in the media as “Supreme Court upholds terrorism support law” which is simplistic in the extreme..
“Support” here is the key word. The challenge was NOT to material support (like money or guns), but to legal advice. And the legal advice here was how to move to non-military negotiation given to two civil war combatants (the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers and Kurdistan Workers Party) and humanitarian aid to civilians with access provided by the Kurdistan Workers Party. So here the Supreme Court has identified speech designed to reduce the prospects of violence to an illegal status.
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It also makes pro-bono legal work for anyone accused of terrorist ties illegal. So, if your sister was arrested for loaning her boyfriend $1000, and her boyfriend was actually a member of a organization that also uses terrorism (say one that supports freedom for the Basque Section of Spain) – your sister could be arrested for given material support to a terrorist organization. Fair enough. But it also means that you couldn’t hire a lawyer for your sister. Because then you would be giving “material support” to terrorist organization and you could go to jail.
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Also illegal is any pro-bono legal work for American groups classified as terrorists. I don’t approve of the Michigan militia, but I find it a little un-American to prohibit any legal work for their defense (apparently that whole innocent-until-proven-guilty is SO 1800s).
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This new law, just upheld, was introduced in the Patriot Act.
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Here are other things that would have been illegal if this law was in effect.George Mitchell’s negotiations with Sean Fien for a resolution to the Northern Ireland Civil War. Sean Fien supported the IRA and terrorism.Anyone who did not answer to Joe McCarthy at the House UnAmericans Activity commission. Communists included armed insurgents in China, Korea, Italy and Vietnam at the time.Any Jewish legal support for the David Ben-Gurrion’s fight against Britain for the founding of Israel. The Zionists were waging an insurrection against Britain at the time.
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We all got a lot less free and safe yesterday. We are becoming the enemy of our own freedom.