I have a few real-life heroes, with Ron Paul sitting at the top of the list. Another of my real-life heroes is John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute. There are few people who are as fierce and competent defenders of civil liberties as John Whitehead. He not only understands the critical importance of civil liberties to a free society, he knows how to competently make the case for protecting civil liberties. Perhaps most important, every one of his articles and books exudes the deep passionate love of liberty that characterizes this man. I make it a point to read his weekly perspectives.
John Whitehead
Consider, for example, this week’s article co-authored by Whitehead and his wife Nisha, entitled “The Authoritarian War on Due Process.” It is the very best analysis you’ll ever read as to what President Trump is doing to destroy our freedom in the name of enforcing America’s system of immigration controls. I wish every single American would read this article. Heck, I’d be happy if every single libertarian read this article, especially those libertarians who have a proclivity of supporting whatever Trump does, especially in the area of immigration enforcement.
Whitehead makes it excruciatingly clear how Trump’s attacks on the rights of immigrants are also a grave attack on the rights and liberties of the American people. Thus, people who support his decision to send Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador without due process of law are, at the same time, supporting the destruction of the rights and liberties of the American people. That is not a good thing, especially for those of us who have not given up hope of restoring freedom to our land.
Consider the right of habeas corpus, which the Framers believed was so important that they included it in the Constitution. I’ll bet that if a survey were to be conducted among the American people, a large percentage of them would have no idea what habeas corpus is all about. Many of them might even respond that they had never heard of the concept.
Yet, without habeas corpus, there is no free society. That’s how important it is. It has been said that habeas corpus is the very lynchpin of a free society. Equally important is the fact that habeas corpus necessarily depends on an independent judicial branch of government that wields the power to enforce executive-branch compliance with its orders. Without such compliance, the right of habeas corpus is nullified or destroyed.
Suppose, for example, we have a society that protects freedom of speech, a natural God-given right that precedes the existence of government. One day, a democratically elected U.S. president begins jailing Americans who have the audacity to criticize his actions.
You might exclaim, “But Jacob, he can’t do that. We have freedom of speech in this country. The First Amendment protects the exercise of this critically important right.”
So what? If the president can jail people for criticizing him, then what good are the First Amendment and freedom of speech?
That’s where habeas corpus and the judicial branch of the federal government come into play. Under habeas corpus, the people who are jailed have the right to file a petition with a U.S. District Court seeking their release. The judge issues a writ commanding the federal official who is holding the prisoners to immediately produce the prisoners in his court for a hearing. At that hearing, the official must show that he is entitled under the law to hold the prisoner. If he fails to do that, the judge orders his immediate release. That is what protects freedom of speech.
This process, needless to say, depends on the president and his subordinates complying with the order of the judge. If the president declares, “I will not comply with his order, and I will continue jailing people who criticize my actions,” then we have entered the realm of dictatorship. The president will now be wielding omnipotent powers to do whatever he wants to people, with no checks on such powers. His actions will most likely not be limited to jailing people for criticizing him but will most likely extend to brutal torture and then possibly even to extra-judicial execution in order to send a message to everyone else in society that they need to be silent or supportive.
What recourse do people who wish to live in a free society have then? There is only one recourse left — the one enunciated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence — a revolution designed to oust the dictator from power and restore freedom and a limited-government republic.
In July 1990 — the first year of The Future of Freedom Foundation’s existence — we published a short essay by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo S. Black, entitled “The Bill of Rights,” which is really worth reading today. Black writes:
Today most Americans seem to have forgotten the ancient evils which forced their ancestors to flee to this new country and to form a government stripped of old powers used to oppress them. But the Americans who supported the Revolution and the adoption of our Constitution knew firsthand the dangers of tyrannical governments…. I cannot agree with those who think of the Bill of Rights as an 18th Century straitjacket, unsuited for this age. It is old but not all old things are bad. The evils it guards against are not only old, they are with us now, they exist today ….
In his article “The Authoritarian War on Due Process,” John Whitehead echoes Black’s words when he states:
If we allow the erosion of due process, if we accept that a president can unilaterally decide who is a threat without oversight, then we have already lost the freedoms that define us as a nation.
This is not just about immigrants.
It’s about every American who values liberty over unchecked power.
We must demand accountability. We must challenge policies that violate constitutional protections. We must support organizations fighting for civil liberties, educate ourselves on our rights, and refuse to be silenced by fear. Because when the government starts making people disappear, the only way to stop it is by making our voices impossible to ignore.
History will judge how we respond. We must act before it’s too late.
The Constitution can’t protect us if we don’t protect it.
The time to resist is now. Otherwise, if we don’t stand up for freedom while we still can, we may not get another chance.
