The U. S. Constitution Did Not Expire:
Not Even in Post-9/11 America

The Constitution is the Constitution, both before and after 9/11, until it is amended or an issue in question is addressed and clarified by the Supreme Court. I want to cringe when I hear people saying we should deal with our legal and military issues as if the U. S. Constitution no longer applied. I too was as dismayed when I saw what horror had been done to the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in the name of religious fanaticism. I am certain that the British have felt that way every time they experienced domestic terrorism by the Irish Republican Army , and that went on for centuries. The real and longer-lasting horror would be for terrorists to win because they let us destroy the rest of what our country is and represents out of our own hatred, fear, and zealotry.


We have laws determining how we try those who break our laws, and we simply cannot disregard things like the 5th and 6th Amendments. They still apply. The Founding Fathers made these laws and deemed them the right thing for us at a time when they were still fighting with the British, and events that we would call terrorism continued to happen during lulls between those wars. They did not let fear override their knowledge of what our country would be then, and we should not do so now.


The 5th Amendment is pretty unambiguous: "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in the time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
What exactly does the 6th Amendment say? "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall be been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense."

When asked, most people--and, evidently, too many of our legislators—only recall that the Fifth Amendment is about not testifying against oneself. The underlined portions in the amendment above show that there are two other very important parts that address how this country tries those who commit crimes against us, whether those crimes are defined as terrorism, mass murder, or any other heinous travesty. Yes, the 9/11 perpetrators were terrorists, by any definition. They planned and committed the premeditated murder of all those trapped in the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon as well as those who foiled their plans and crashed a plane in a Pennsylvania field and the first responders who tried to rescue the victims. Their crime killed many and wounded our country's morale. Americans felt and continue to feel more vulnerable than they had felt since, perhaps, Pearl Harbor, the Civil War or the Revolutionary War Era.

If asked, "What rights do we have under the Sixth Amendment?" people reply that it has something to do with trial rights, if they can recall anything at all. They forget that the amendment does not specify that it is only U. S. citizens who have these rights. The rules apply but to anyone who breaks one of our laws on our soil. During the Glenn Beck inspired 9/12 rally, I saw Congressmen and women waving about a copy of the Constitution and claiming things about it that are not even correct. I would suggest that some of the legislators waving the Constitution aloft should read it instead.

The Glenn Beck view of 9/12 is not at all like the 9/12 I remember or that which my son, who still lives in New York and was working not far from the Towers on that awful day, remembers. Beck's is not the 9/12 that we all saw soon after the attacks. There was the initial shock and disbelief, and then there was selfless and fearless heroism as first responders risked personal safety, some even losing their lives, to help others. Crime was minimal as people worked together, even as night fell. That was the American spirit of can-do and we-will-not-be-beaten-down. Americans got back to work at being who we are: proud people who can face horror and remain who we are, what the Founding Fathers hoped we would be. When the British were burning down our early American cities, our founders did not decide we should be a military junta in order to be safe. Case in point: those British soldiers who committed what was called the Boston Massacre were defended in court by John Adams, even though he knew he would face criticism and stern condemnation in the press. Why? Because he believed in the kind of legal system that could ably serve to address even those acts of terrorism. After his initial criticism, he went on to be elected our first vice president and second president. Men like Adams and Washington and Jefferson and others did not want us to become the country their parents had fled. They saw a vision of the world our Constitution embodies.

Every time in history that one of our leaders allowed his fears to cloud what our founding document plainly says that we are-- including Adams when he later briefly enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts during his presidency-- they were condemned at the time and by history as well. Our Founding Fathers had seen troops on their own soil during the Revolutionary War which lasted over eight years and resulted in well over four thousand deaths. Even after that, they drew up our founding laws, including the Bill of Rights—ratified in 1791—which includes those pesky Fifth and Sixth Amendments some on the right would like to dismiss. The bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941resulted in 2,288 soldiers, sailors, and civilians killed, and we let our fears intern Japanese-Americans, many of whom were citizens—for no other reasons than our fear of all Japanese people. And to this day, it remains one of our great shames. After World War II, after over 290, 000 people had died in that war, we went back to being who we are meant to be. During the 1950's Red Scare when innocent people were guilty merely by accusation, cooler heads prevailed and voices like that of Joe McCarthy were silenced by reason.

My hope remains that the hate and fanaticism of the Tea Partiers and right-wing radio along with the politicians who fall into line with their rantings will also go the way of the McCarthy acolytes of my youth. The terrorists, including Khalid Sheik Muhammad, can and should be tried by the dictates of our laws with a speedy public trial with an impartial jury, and yes, tried in the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed with the Assistance of Counsel for his defense. That is the way we tried Tim McVey, who killed over 150 people with his homemade truck bomb--including the children in the day care facility of the federal building—and Ramzi Yousef and others. Yousef was sentenced to life plus 240 years for the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, and his conviction and sentence were unanimously upheld in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. While those terrorists failed to bring down both Towers in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Yousef and others caused great damage and senseless death and injury to others. They were punished. The system put in place by our Founding Fathers worked and worked well. Why are we so afraid of it now? Even George Will, no champion of Democrats or liberals, as well as NYC's Republican Mayor Bloomberg, agree that it is the right thing to do to try Khalid Sheik Muhammad in NYC.

Khalid Sheik Muhammad is not in any organized army we recognize as such nor is he a representative of any state against whom we are at war. Where the officer who shot and killed fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood will be by court martial, KSM is a different case. We are not under martial law, and I would hope that no one believes that necessary in what has come to be called "Post 9/11 America." Until our fears permit the rule of martial law, those laws in our Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, remain our laws, after 9/11 just as they were before 9/11. If we let them, fanatics-- either radical Islamists or homegrown fear mongers--will achieve what the 9/11 terrorists set out to do. They wanted to bring down the sign of our economic system and symbols of our government to destroy us. We cannot let them. Americans are not patient. We need to remember that those who would destroy us are.

They only win if we let them win. It will matter little if we only rebuild destroyed buildings and fight successful battles in Iraq and Afghanistan while we let politicians and hysterical fear shred the very document that defines what and who we are. We will have then won nothing and lost everything. That would be a Pyrrhic victory indeed.