On Sat, Dec 01, 2001 at 02:14:20AM -0500, Gautam Mukunda wrote: > Second - foreigners _do_ have fewer rights in the view of the > Constitution because they are not US citizens. The purpose of the > American Constitution is to guarantee civil rights to American > citizens. The preamble begins "We the People of the United States" > not "We the People of the world." I hope that people in other > countries have full civil rights, but it is not incumbent upon the > American government that it treat them as if they have the same levels > of Constitutional protection that American citizens receive. Foreign > nationals in the United States have Constitutional protections almost > on the level of those given to American citizens. But those outside > the United States do not at all, which is perfectly reasonable, to my > mind.
It is not reasonable to my mind. I understand that the Constitution does not guarantee civil rights to non-Americans. But it should. Ethically, I do not see why being American or not has any bearing on whether a person deserves basic rights of justice and fair treatement. These are the rights that should be applied to all human beings, and in fact, to all sentient creatures. Incidentally, it wasn't that long ago that China detained a foreigner on charges of being involved in spying. What Ashcroft is advocating can result in America abusing rights of justice in the same way that China abused rights of justice. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.com/
