Democrats are still making due process the enemy of their efforts following the Orlando shooting—or they’re trying to, at least.
On Thursday, New York representative Jerry Nadler tweeted, “We must not use due-process as an excuse to support mass murder,” along with a link to his speech on the House floor.
In the speech, Nadler said he’s “one of the most concerned people” about due process rights, citing his opposition to the Patriot Act. However, he argues banning people on the terrorist watch list from purchasing guns, with no notification and no trial, does not deny them those rights. Nadler says Republicans’ concern about the issue is “not real here.”
He explained that what Republicans are, in effect, saying is that, “Okay, you can be … so dangerous that we won’t let you get on an airplane, but because of due process rights, ’cause of concern over due process rights, we can’t deprive you of the ability to buy a gun.”
Nadler then asked a rhetorical question that seemed to lead his speech in an unintended direction.
“But what about your due process rights to get on an airplane? Isn’t it a burden on someone to say you can’t fly anywhere? Do we impose that burden without adequate due process? Maybe. I don’t think so, but maybe,” Nadler said. “But whatever the due process rights that should be adequate for saying you can’t get on an airplane, they should be adequate for saying you can’t buy a gun. If they’re not adequate, then change them both.”
Maybe the no-fly aspect ought to be reformed.
Unfortunately, terrorist watch lists are notoriously shoddy, and one doesn’t have to be convicted of a crime to be placed on the list. The Huffington Post has called the criteria developed to determine whether one belongs on a terrorist watch list “extremely vague and loosely defined.” And furthermore, as John McCormack wrote in December, there have been high-profile cases of innocent U.S. citizens like former senator Ted Kennedy and THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s Stephen F. Hayes erroneously winding up on the list.
An estimate from FactCheck.org suggests there were about 40,000 Americans on the terrorist watch list as of September 2014, and 6,400 Americans on the no-fly list. FiveThirtyEight estimates both numbers are closer to a few thousand.
In 2012, the ACLU, which has taken issue with recent proposals by Democrats and Republicans involving terrorist watch lists, “filed a legal challenge on behalf of fifteen American citizens and lawful permanent residents who cannot fly to or from the U.S. or over its airspace because they are on the list.”
In December, CNN published a list of the “most embarrassing mistakes” on the no-fly list. Among the highlights is the story of an 18-month-old child being removed from a flight, because she “was flagged as no fly.”
