As Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev recuperates in hospital, some Republicans are calling for him to be considered as an enemy combatant and thus, “subject to the laws of war so intelligence officials can continue to interrogate him for as long as they deem necessary.”
The impulse to see Tsarnaev punished for his (alleged) crimes is thoroughly understandable. But that Sens. Graham, McCain, Ayotte and Rep. Peter King would see his basic criminal rights — as an American citizen — abridged, is troubling.
Fortunately, Dr. Don Boudreaux is on the case and has penned one of his famous letters to the editor in response to the Washington Times piece linked above:
As dangerous and evil as Mr. Tsarnaev might be, he could never pose as great a threat to the republic as that which is posed by government officials impulsively circumventing well-established Constitutional procedures in the name of public safety.
The late Robert Bork – a conservative icon – was frequently likened to Sir Thomas More as depicted in Robert Bolt’s 1960 play, A Man for All Seasons. Conservatives, therefore, should pay special heed to More’s insistence on the importance of the rule of law – an insistence famously portrayed in a scene in which More explains to his son-in-law (Will Roper) why he, More, as Chancellor of England, will not use arbitrary measures to subdue the traitorous Richard Rich:
“ROPER: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
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“MORE: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
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“ROPER: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
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“MORE: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down (and you’re just the man to do it!), do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?
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“Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”
Exactly.
