Today's Mankato Free Press reports Walz sees good, bad news for civil liberties. Here's the meat of Walz's position:
This week brought opposite outcomes for basic American civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, according to Congressman Tim Walz. The 2nd Amendment was the winner and the 4th was the loser.
The good news on Thursday, in Walz’s view, was the Supreme Court decision upholding a lower court ruling that the unusually restrictive gun laws in the District of Columbia were unconstitutional. The 5-4 decision was heralded by gun-rights advocates as an historic confirmation that the 2nd Amendment is about individuals — not just militias.
“Gun ownership is a basic right in America, not to be infringed upon by anyone or any government entity,” Walz said in a written statement. “... It is a victory that gun-owners, hunters, sportsmen and everyday Americans waited too long for.”
But Walz was disturbed by the willingness of Congress to allow warrantees government eavesdropping conducted by the Bush administration in the years following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Critics have said White House officials, with the help of telecommunications companies, violated the 4th Amendment — which requires court approval for intrusive government searches into people’s private affairs.
“We could have stood for a better bill that would have done a better job of balancing liberty and security,” Walz said Thursday.
And the endorsed GOP candidate? He would have voted for the spying bill:
Brian Davis, the Republican Party’s endorsed candidate against Walz, said he would have voted for the bill.
“If we opened them up to lawsuits, we’d all be paying for it,” Davis said of the telephone companies’ customers. “... If there was some violation of civil liberties, I have no problem with finding out what happened.”
No word on how Davis proposes to do that, though he seems to be as willing to surrender ordinary citizens' ability to seek redress through the civil courts as he is willing to surrender on the 4th amendment.
Congressman Walz supports gun rights. Both contenders for the GOP primary nomination do as well, although Senator Day is the only one with a legislative track record on the issue.
Comments