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From: orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Edwin Meese
Message-ID: <456@whuts.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 4-Jan-86 17:43:32 EST
Article-I.D.: whuts.456
Posted: Sat Jan  4 17:43:32 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Jan-86 05:54:46 EST
References: <446@ssc-bee.UUCP> <4740@alice.UUCP> <754@grkermi.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 48

> In article <4740@alice.UUCP> ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig) writes:
> >> To start it off,  Edwin Meese as the Attorney General is a JOKE.   Just about
> >> any schmuck off the street could do a better job.  Example: recently (w/n the
> >> year) he was attacking the Due Process clause of the 5th amendment.
> >> He wanted to pretty much do away with the right to an attorney, ect.  His
> >> reasoning?  Here is a paraphrase " why should we provide these rights to
> >> people who are under investigation?  If they were innocent they wouldn't
> >> BE under investigation."  The man simply is a legal fool.
> >>
> >Well, tell us what he said, not your interpretation of what he said.
> >And tell us your sources, so that we can verify it for ourselves if we wish.
> AWR

Here is the exact quote provided in a NYTimes editorial Oct 8,1985:
 
   Q. You criticize the Miranda ruling, which gives suspects the right to
      have a lawyer present before police questioning.  Shouldn't people
      who may be innocent, have such protection?
   
   A. Suspects who are innocent of crime should.  But the thing is,
      you don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime.
      That is contradictory.   If a person is innocent of a crime,
      then he is not a suspect.
 
Meese has also claimed that the Bill of Rights does not apply to the
States.  All libertarians on this network should be outraged at this
contention - without the protection of the Bill of Rights you can kiss
our civil liberties goodbye.
The Reagan administration has recently prosecuted Samuel Eliot Morrison
for leaking documents to the press which the government admitted were
already known to the Soviets.  This case could be the leading wedge in
trying to prosecute reporters or their sources for leaks of information
which pose absolutely no threat to national security but could pose
a real embarrasment to a sitting administration.
Reagan of course has also ordered lie detector tests to be administered
throughout the upper reaches of government which even the wimp George
Schulz has objected to strongly.
The Reagan Administration has supported the dismantling of the Fairness
Doctrine which allows all groups access to TV time to respond to
editorials on TV stations and requires that all sides of issues be presented.
The Reagan administration tried to allow all agencies of government to
exchange their information but the Congress refused to promulgate
this invasion of privacy.

One of the greatest hidden stories is this allout assault on civil
liberties by the Reagan administration - even as Reagan spouts rhetoric
about "freedom" and "democracy".
                    tim sevener  whuxn!orb