Who Will Stand Up?

In Esther Forbes' wonderful book for young adults, Johnny Tremain, there is a meeting of the patriot party in Boston on the eve of the Revolution. The question of just what they are fighting for comes up, and James Otis speaks. Otis, who had argued the writs-of-assistance cases that presaged our debate over warrantless wiretapping, was afflicted with the mental illness that would plague him for the rest of his life. But on this occasion, his mind was clear. What was at stake, he said, was "That a man can stand up," and speak his mind.

With the announcement of a "compromise" between the Bush White House and Senators McCain, Warner and Graham on the detainee-treatment bill, it's time for someone to stand up and shout. Shout that the bill would permit the administration to continue mistreating prisoners, as long as it doesn't admit that it is doing so. Shout that those who have engaged in torture--and those who authorized it--will be immunized from responsibility for their crimes. Shout that the right of habeus corpus (the "great writ" as it is often called, and perhaps the oldest recognized right of all) will be taken from hundreds of men at Guantanamo who have committed no crime. (Full disclosure: my law firm represents two of those men.)

Will Democrats stand up? Will they point out the defects in the bill as The Washington Post and The New York Times have? Let's hope that at least a few of them will.

You can help give the Democrats some spine: write to your Democratic senator or congressman (or, if you are unlucky enough to be represented by Republicans, to any Democrat in Congress) asking them to stand and be counted for the values this nation was founded on.