Preserve Civil Liberties and Privacy - OLD

Note: This resolution has been replaced with a more up-to-date one, entitled "Restore the U.S. Constitution".

Whereas, The U.S. Constitution establishes and ensures democracy in this country and additional amendments and legislation have expanded civil rights and liberty guarantees; and Whereas, The American jurisprudence system is the envy of the free world with it's emphasis on due process of law; and Whereas, Recent Executive Orders of the current administration, along with the so-called USA PATRIOT Act, subvert our American justice system with military tribunals where officers sit as judge and jury with secret evidence, secret witnesses, secret verdicts and even secretly handed-down death sentences; and Whereas, The First Amendment protects controversial views and nothing is more controversial than peace when your government justifies war with lies and threatens those who protest that war; and Whereas, The Federal Bureau of Investigation has infringed upon civil liberties, as reported in the New York Times, by collecting information on anti-war demonstrators; and Whereas, Retired General Tommy Franks recently said that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government; and Whereas, We should not let the actions of terrorists cause us to sacrifice our American system of justice, privacy and Constitutional rights; and Whereas, Too many Americans, especially those that are not of European, Christian ancestry, have been intimidated and excluded from our democracy, and other citizens and immigrants in this country continue to be targets of discrimination; therefore, be it Resolved, that Executive Orders, regulations, laws and departmental procedures and orders implemented during this administration that have limited our civil liberties and compromised our rights to privacy, including but not limited to the USA PATRIOT Act, be repealed and rescinded.