Civil liberties are "nothing more than the list of things the government is not allowed to do," said Glenn Greenwald, a former constitutional law and civil rights lawyer, in his lecture before a full Salomon 001 last night. The best-selling author discussed the characteristics of civil liberties and argued that President Barack Obama is failing to respect them.
Greenwald laid out the four qualities that make civil liberties distinct from other aspects of the U.S. political system. First, each right is absolute — there is "no compromise permitted." Next, he said civil liberties are "by design, anti-democratic," because even if the majority wants to infringe upon a civil right, it cannot do so. Further, Greenwald said civil liberties do not change. He said people often cite war as an excuse for the violation of civil rights, but this argument has no basis in the Constitution. Finally, he said civil liberties are "not dependent on citizenship" — the Constitution grants these rights to everyone, and the Supreme Court has ruled the "distinction is non-existent" between citizens and noncitizens in regards to civil rights.
All people should care about civil liberties, Greenwald said, even if they are not directly affected by the curtailment of a specific liberty — it is "inevitable" that the abrogation "will spread." He cited the case of Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who burned the Quran. If Jones' right to free speech had been infringed upon under the argument that his action constituted an act of harm, the country would have set a precedent supporting the creation of a "list of prohibited ideas." This list would no doubt expand, he said, affecting many more people.
Greenwald said many people objected "in theory" to the government's detainment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay without conclusive evidence but thought the prisoners "were probably guilty." Greenwald criticized the American populace for enabling the incarceration of innocent people by assuming the government had "legitimate certainty" of the detainees' guilt.
The debate over civil liberties has subsided since Obama was elected, Greenwald said, calling it a "huge problem." While voters criticized former President George W. Bush's "right-wing and radical" policies, Obama retained Bush's policies and "converted them into partisan consensus."
Greenwald ended the lecture on a humorous note — he apologized for the topic not being "sunny." But "(it is) not actually my fault," he said.
