http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/12/liberals-progressive-oppose-gun-ban-no-fly-lists.html
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As Americans we understand well how important due process is. No one,
for instance, should be thrown in jail just on the say-so of some
government official who declares they deserve it. Such is the behavior
of tyrants, the Founding Fathers understood, and so we enshrined in our
Constitution the right to counsel, the right against being compelled to
testify against oneself, the right to trial by jury, etc. All of these
rights are checks to ensure the government can’t simply pluck innocent
people out of their lives and strip them of their life, liberty, or
property. Only after fairly testing the charges against them can the
government punish people with such deprivation.
But none of these hurdles must be overcome for the government to put
someone on a list, especially not a list like this, which is a watch
list. It is a list of people that for whatever reason (a reason
that no one outside the government knows) the government has decided
deserve closer scrutiny of their actions.
That there is any list at all should give us all pause. It has not historically been the hallmark of a healthy democracy when governments have kept lists of people they didn’t like.
It is hard to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the
people when the government keeps track of the people, including those dissidents who would challenge it (which is something that in a democracy they are allowed, and even supposed, to do).
The “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance,” a 166-page document
(link) issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out
the government’s secret rules for putting individuals on its main
terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list,
which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings.
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