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Hear Andrew Schneider October12->Northeast Chapter Annual Meeting Americans can be both safe and free, ACLU-CT’s new executive director told a State Capitol news conference September 17 observing Constitution Day.
In his initial public appearance since taking the reins a week earlier, Andrew Schneider described “how the War on Terrorism has pitted liberty vs. security, in a contest that should never have taken place.”
“Instead of embarking willy-nilly on unprecedented government sweeps through our personal data,” he said, “the government must conduct a rational evaluation and prioritization of our security needs. Security funds are limited, and must be spent where they will do the most good. And above all, it must never be forgotten that the ultimate goal is the protection of the well-being of Americans, and that there are many ways that goal can be threatened.”
At the national level, Schneider described a litany of invasions of civil liberties and constitutional rights: - Warrantless wiretapping
- Torture, kidnapping and detention of “enemy combatants”
- A growing “surveillance society”
- Abuse of the U.S.A. Patriot Act
- Government secrecy
- “Real I.D.”, the attempt to lay the foundation for a national I.D. card.
- “No Fly” and similar watch lists that have mushroomed to 720,000 names
- Political spying
- Abuse of the “material witness” statute to detain people, mostly Muslims, without evidence they have witnessed anything
- Attacks on academic freedom by denying entry to foreign scholars
At the state level, Schneider warned against rushing to create harsh new laws in response to the recent killings in Cheshire. That was a horrible event, he said, but the General Assembly should act in a measured way. He said the ACLU of Connecticut will continue to monitor deliberations, speak at public hearings and lobby legislators not to create new invasions of Constitutional rights that will not add to citizens’ safety.
“We can,” he concluded, “be both safe and free.”
Read a Connecticut Law Tribune profile of Andrew Schneider Law Tribune Profile
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