Should the constitution apply to non citizens?

[fujiyama]

I was listening to NPR a few weeks ago, and there was a conversation on about whether the consititution applies to non citizens. I was reminded of this today, as I was reading the thread about Tommy Frank stating that the Constitution would be suspended if a WMD goes off in the US.

The way I look at it, non citizens should be given all rights under the constitution expect voting (but they shouldn't be drafted either).

The only thing that applies to them, which doesn't apply to citizens, is deportation, which should be granted only in the worst circumstances. Unfortunately, the SC recely ruled that even permanent residents can be deported for petty crimes.

The US has also detained, indefinetely, thousands of Arabs throughout the US, being held with no details, and having not had any charges pressed against them. This is to say nothing of Guantonimo Bay, where another several thousand are held, with no explanation of why, and no indication of how long.

What we have had going on is already looking similar to the Japanese internment camps of WWII. There is also no reason that such a thing could not happen again.

These things may not worry many people. I understand that most Americans are worried about jobs and healthcare. Some brown looking person, who's probably a 'terris A-Rab, isn't worthy of their attention.

Fine, but eventually these things can be applied for citizens as well. There were works being drawn up in the '70s to detain up to 21 million African Americans, because of black nationalism.

The way the Patriot Act was passed with no debate, is as frightening as another terrorist attack on US soil. The fact that most of those measures had been consider to fight the "war on drugs" is also disturbing.

Many have stated that we are living in Nazi Germany. Not quite, because such brutality is not quite evident, at least domestically -- yet. A more apt comparison may be that to East Germany, where homes were bugged, people disappeared with no trace, the public was fed constant propaganda, but it all occured during what was considered peace time. A CNN call-in segment once on the Patriot Act says it all, where some woman from the South, stated "I have nothing to hide. Let them search me".

The repercussions of how we treat immigrants and non citizens, can be great for all citizens. We should be vigilant.

[Andyjunction]

1. Yes

If they don't apply to everyone then they aren't rights, they're privileges.

I'd hate to think that freedom of speech is a privilege. Oh, wait...

[Paschall]

2. In answer to your question: It already does

The Constitution is the law of the land. Not the law that applies to American citizens. Everyone within the confines of US territory--citizen and non-citizen alike--has the right to all constitutional guarantees to due process, freedom of speech and assembly, etc. Similarly, when US citizens live or travel abroad they are covered exclusively by the constitution/legislation of the country in which they find themselves. The US Constitution is not "transferrable."

Will the Constitution be upheld? The court's still out on that one.

[Fescue4u]

3. Sure, if they are on US soil.

However if they are foreigners in foreign lands, all bets all off.

A bit of grey area is US treatment of US citizens on foreign lands (unless they are serving in the military)

[w13rd0]

4. To those that say such nonsense...

..."let them search me, I have nothing to hide"...

I usually respond, "Will you be so willing say under a Hillary Clinton Presidency?" or "Would you have something to hide in, say, Saudi Arabia? Or Soviet Russia during the Cold War?" The PATRIOT Act and Ashcrofts DOJ should scare anyone with a functioning brain, since unless you are talking to someone operating under the delusions that Bush is an agent of God and the GOP will rule all in a one-party system willingly using deception and oppression to enforce their will, then it's demonstratable that these methodologies would frighten.

I mean, if predjudice and homophobia were illegal, would they still have nothing to hide? Would they want their business competitors reading their email and looking over their web browsing? Would they want Ossama bin Laden to find a backdoor and be able to access the same information? Are their credit and purchase histories also beyond scrutiny?

Anyone that says that, I advise telling them that it just so happens that you can get surveillance equipment cheaply, and you'd like to make sure that they are prepared to live beneath the Fish Eye for a week, let alone the rest of their lives.

Granted, many have been preparing for it for years. Having no life other than that which they view on the television screen. But there too, knowing what they watch...what makes them blink...what makes their heart rate increase.

Those that say they have nothing to hide are either liars or sociopaths...

[fujiyama]

5. kick

[onebigbadwulf]

6. It already does

~

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

7. As others have been saying here . . . .

. . . it already does.

For example:

Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U.S. 67 (1976):

There are literally millions of aliens within the jurisdiction of the United States. The Fifth Amendment, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, protects every one of these persons from deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Wong Yang Sung v. McGrath, 339 U.S. 33, 48 -51; Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228, 238 ; see Russian Fleet v. United States, 282 U.S. 481, 489 . Even one whose presence in this country is unlawful, involuntary, or transitory is entitled to that constitutional protection. Wong Yang Sung, supra; Wong Wing, supra. <426 U.S. 67, 78>