Constitution Day

Constitution Day: Now more than ever Constitution needs our attention

Constitution Day, September 17, marks the 221st anniversary of the signing of our American Constitution.

This landmark election year is an ideal time to reflect on the significance of our democratic process and the rights our Constitution ensures us.

When they designed our Constitution, America’s founders divided government into three separate powers: Executive (the President), Legislative (Congress) and Judicial (courts).

Founders added 10 amendments, called The Bill of Rights, to the end of the new Constitution to reinforce citizen rights and protections.

Separation of powers creates the checks and balances that keep our democracy healthy -- each branch keeps an eye on the others so that no one part becomes too powerful.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Lord Acton pointed out in 1887.

Developments in recent years have reinforced awareness of the importance Constitutional separation of powers plays in our democracy.

The current President has issued a series of “signing statements” that claim a theoretical “Unitary Executive” form of absolute power for the Executive branch. The term “Unitary Executive” is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution.

Congress makes laws every citizen, including the President, must follow.

The President can approve or veto suggested laws, but if Congress overrides his veto and passes them, they apply to him too.

Signing statements are notes by the President informing Congress he’ll “cherry pick” new laws and obey only the parts he agrees with.

In the past 8 years, the current Executive told our Congressional representatives he’ll ignore parts of over 100 new laws.

Those laws encompass wartime budget justification, government employee whistleblower protection, the FBI’s use of the Patriot Act, and prisoner interrogation methods, to name a few.

In 2006, an American Bar Association Blue Ribbon Task Force described the current administration’s use of signing statements as “contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers.”

Bill of Rights protections have also come under fire in recent years.

Recent developments like the Patriot Act, the 2006 Military Commissions Act, efforts to dismantle church-state separation and gun-rights attacks that include using armed, private security companies to seize Hurricane Katrina victims’ firearms have threatened American freedom in unprecedented ways.

But attempts to revoke habeas corpus rights are perhaps the most serious Constitutional challenge Americans continue to face.

Habeas corpus requires the government to show a good reason for keeping people prisoner.

Article I of the Constitution states: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

America’s War on Terror, sparked by 9/11 events, sparked habeas corpus questions about overseas prisoners. Most of those detainees don’t fall under our Constitutional protection.

But we’re told the War on Terror could go on for a long time – a prospect that raises concerns about Constitutional habeas corpus guarantees for citizens here in the “homeland.”

Our Constitution is only as strong as the citizens’ interest in defending it – against enemies foreign and domestic.

Please take an opportunity to re-read your Constitution, and think about the rights it ensures you and your family on this Constitution Day.