On a related note. Here's the editorial from today's
Springfield News-Leader.
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Published July 6, 2005
Innocent have something to fear
Let's dump "suspicious until proven innocent."
Whenever civil libertarians object to rules or laws that let government intrude into personal privacy in the name of security, the laws' defenders have a quick response. If you're not doing anything illegal, you have nothing to fear.
Tell it to Elizabeth McLinn.
McLinn is the Bolivar woman who bought two boxes of cold medicine. A Wal-Mart employee thought she'd been buying too much pseudoephedrine, so he called the cops on her.
When they pulled her over, she had nearly two more boxes in her car, plus (gasp) rock salt, rubbing alcohol and potting soil. The next day she was charged with possession of precursor ingredients with intent to manufacture methamphetamine, a felony. She spent the weekend in jail before a relative arranged to bail her out.
Two months later, a court dismissed the case when it became quite clear she has severe allergies, a big garden (the potting soil), spends a lot of time outdoors (rubbing alcohol for bug bites) and prepares for winter (the rock salt).
She did nothing illegal, but she has paid with lost time, lost money and the humiliation of being tossed in jail — and having to acknowledge the arrest and charge on applications for teaching jobs.
Meth is an epidemic. Lawmakers and law enforcement are right to focus their attention on it. But when laws presume guilt from the possession of common, legal products, there should be a greater onus on law enforcement to make sure there is actual criminal intent.
Failure to do that makes victims of the innocent — which should be inexcusable no matter how noble the cause. American justice was established on the premise that it is better to free 100 guilty people than to imprison one innocent person.
The current trend in American law, unfortunately, goes the other way.
High schools, with the blessing of the U.S. Supreme Court, require students in any extracurricular activity to submit to random drug tests. The teens are essentially considered guilty until proven innocent.
The Patriot Act allows the FBI, on the lightest of suspicion, to track any citizen's reading and Internet habits. It opens the way to spying on citizens.
The Transportation Security Administration compiles databases of "suspicious" travelers that forces people with the wrong name to endure extra searches and questioning — and sometimes keeps them off their flights.
But if you've done nothing illegal, you have nothing to fear, the refrain comes back. Security requires a few sacrifices.
Tell that to Elizabeth McLinn.
The founders added the Bill of Rights to the Constitution to put a check on government — and to make personal liberty more important than communal security. The founders knew where a road paved in good intentions leads.
That road throws people like Elizabeth McLinn in jail for the weekend when they have done nothing illegal. It is a road we need to get off of.