Our family recently celebrated Independence Day in
classic American style, by hauling our two kids and grandma to upstate
New York to take in the grandeur of Niagara Falls and a spectacular
fireworks display. Along the way, we got a dramatic reminder
of why certain American values embodied in July 4th’s celebration
of freedom are worth preserving. As we strapped our six-year-old
into her car seat at the Buffalo, New York car rental outpost, she
discovered a razor blade in a side pocket of the car. Pretty
scary. It got even scarier when, as we looked around the car,
we discovered a dozen more blades scattered throughout the interior.
After we quickly removed ourselves and our belongings from the car,
the attendants searched the vehicle. In the trunk, under a
carpeted mat next to the spare tire, they found a large zip-lock
bag full of pills that was clearly not purchased at the neighborhood
pharmacy.
After mortified car rental agents quickly upgraded
our rental and thoroughly inspected that car as well, we were on
our way. When we crossed the border en route to the Canadian
side of the falls, we began to contemplate fully the potential danger
that our daughter’s discovery had averted. If our car had
been stopped and searched near the border by border patrol agents,
customs officials, or state troopers, we would almost certainly
have ended up in detention, trying to credibly explain how a huge
bag of drugs and apparent paraphernalia ended up in our car without
our knowledge or consent. As African Americans from New York
City, we’d also have had powerful stereotypes to overcome.
If our car had been stopped and searched, would law enforcement
officers have believed our explanation, particularly if the car
rental agency told authorities they thoroughly clean all cars before
renting them to new customers? If we had been detained, how
quickly would we have secured counsel to represent us, and what
interrogation methods might law enforcement have used? We
were still discussing the chilling possibilities the next day, when
President Bush announced he will soon make his first appointment
to the U.S. Supreme Court.
These events brought home to us in an intensely personal
way why the candidate the President nominates and the Senate confirms
must be committed to upholding the rights of those suspected of
crimes – among them, the right against unreasonable searches and
seizures, the right to adequate counsel, the right to confront one’s
accusers, and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
These rights, so often derided by politicians as loopholes and technicalities,
are essential to our freedom. They help to check the awesome
power of the state over the individual, and to ensure a system that
seeks justice rather than conviction by any means necessary.
The historical roots of this American philosophy of
justice run deep. In declaring their independence from Britain
in 1776, the thirteen American states charged King George III with
“injuries and usurpations” that included obstructing the administration
of justice, undermining the independence of the judiciary, and depriving
the colonists of the benefits of trial by jury. Fifteen years
later, the Founders made specific those elements essential to a
fair criminal justice system in the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments
to the Constitution. "A bill of rights," Thomas
Jefferson wrote, "is what the people are entitled to against
every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just
government should refuse, or rest on inference."
The Supreme Court has picked up where the Founders
left off, expressing how fundamentally important these rights are
to a fair criminal process. In Miranda v. Arizona,
the case requiring the now familiar warnings that law enforcement
officers must give prior to custodial interrogation, the Court called
protecting one’s right against self incrimination “the hallmark
of our democracy.” And in Gideon v. Wainwright, which
recognized the right to counsel even if one cannot afford it, the
Court said “[t]he Sixth Amendment stands as a constant admonition
that if the constitutional safeguards it provides be lost, justice
will not still be done.” Unfortunately, over the last two
decades, federal courts have slowly but surely eroded many of the
rights protecting the suspected and accused. Courts have found
that defense lawyers who were drunk or asleep during the trial nevertheless
constituted “adequate” counsel, and that many searches are “consensual”
when the subject of the search clearly did not feel free to refuse.
The Supreme Court has even allowed police to stop motorists for
pretextual reasons, like traffic violations, when their real goal
is to search the vehicle because they suspect wrongdoing wholly
unrelated to traffic – suspicion that often arises because of the
race of people in the car.
If the nomination hearings for Judge John Roberts,
who President Bush would like to see replace Justice Sandra Day
O’Connor, are informed by the hot button topics of the day
they will likely focus on issues like abortion, gay marriage, and
affirmative action. In the cacophonous weeks ahead Senators must
also probe whether Judge Roberts will uphold the fundamental rights
of the suspected or accused enshrined in the Bill of Rights. As
our family learned on Independence Day, and as many more families
learn each and every day, you never know when you might need them.
Kirsten D. Levingston directs the Criminal Justice
Program at the Brennan
Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. Alan Jenkins
is Executive Director of the Opportunity
Agenda. |