New York Times and Due Process

I doubt the New York Times would editorialize against any other part of the Bill of Rights in such a way as this:

Here is a chilling and potentially lethal fact of life: A person on the F.B.I.’s terrorist watch list is barred from boarding an airplane yet is quite free to buy high-power firearms and ammunition at any American gun shop.

How about this:

Here is a chilling and potentially lethal fact of life: A person on the F.B.I.’s terrorist watch list is barred from boarding an airplane yet is quite free to buy books on military tactics and infiltration techniques at any American book store.

Or this:

Here is a chilling and potentially lethal fact of life: A person on the F.B.I.’s terrorist watch list is barred from boarding an airplane yet are not being detained in military brigs, and are free to walk any American street.

Or finally this:

Here is a chilling and potentially lethal fact of life: A person on the F.B.I.’s terrorist watch list is barred from boarding an airplane yet is still entitled to continue practicing Islam in any American mosque.

No. All those other things I mentioned are fundamental rights the New York Times agrees with and would defend viciously. Clearly the editorial staff at the Times has not yet accepted the full implications of Heller and McDonald, which is that you can’t deny someone the right to buy a gun because of their presence on a secret government list.

9 thoughts on “New York Times and Due Process”

  1. “Here is a chilling and potentially lethal fact of life: A person on the F.B.I.’s terrorist watch list is able to represent the State of Massachusetts as a United States Senator.”

    For those unaware, see: the late Senator Edward Kennedy

  2. How many of these 247 on the terror watch list are non citizens? I baffles me that people on the watch list, who are not citizens, are not send home. Why should someone here on a green card be deemed a threat yet still enjoy the privileges of living here on a green card.

  3. David: because deportation requires due process, unlike being put on the terror watch list.

  4. Apparently the NYT editors never considered the possibility that it’s beneficial to allow those being watched by law enforcement to make legal gun purchases instead of driving them to underground, e.g. undiscovered, sources. This is the same nonsense seen Bloomberg’s “sting” operations that compromised actual ongoing undercover operations. But seriously, they don’t really care; they’ve got a position staked out and anything they can find will be propped up to support it.

  5. ‘Here is a chilling and potentially lethal fact of life: A person on the F.B.I.’s terrorist watch list is barred from boarding an airplane yet is still entitled to rent and drive a moving truck capable of carrying several tons of high explosives.’

    After all, it’s not like NY has ever been victimized by a terrorist with a truck bomb…

  6. Jeff:

    If you look at he back of a green card (which is now white), it says it’s good unless revoked by DHS. The “due” process in the immigration system is nowhere near what it is in the criminal court system.

    No one has answered why we have people here on green cards who are on terror watch lists. Start the deportation process and send them home. As for the U.S citizens on these watch lists, there are some serious problems with that.

  7. How about this one:

    Here is a chilling and potentially lethal fact of life: A person on the F.B.I.’s terrorist watch list is barred from boarding an airplane yet is quite free to communicate with their terror cells free from government wire-taps on any American telephone or computer.

    Also, apparently it is just about the guns, as it is ridiculous to deny suspected terrorists free healthcare.

    The last Congress, in its 11th-hour rush, showed no qualms about approving a ridiculous proposal requiring 9/11 responders and victims to be checked against the terrorist watch list before receiving federal health care benefits.

  8. The New York Times does not recognize a right to keep and bear arms. They’re leftists there.

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