Letter Printed in the Montclair Times
Forum on Patriot Act
Wednesday, January 28, 2004The error started in The New York Times obituary about my husband, Arthur Kinoy. It was included in The Montclair Times obituary, and repeated again in your “2003 Movers and Shakers Review.” I am glad to see the continuing recognition of the incredible person Arthur was, but I would like to correct the error.
The reference is to Arthur’s “most famous case” being when “he teamed with fellow attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass to defend…the Chicago Seven,” the activists accused of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention. The trial was indeed famous, but Arthur was not one of the trial lawyers. He took, and won, the appeal of the five who were convicted (two were acquitted at the trial level).
It was soon after that appeal that Arthur argued one of his most famous cases before the Supreme Court. Nixon was president, John Mitchell was attorney general. They argued that they should be allowed to wiretap U.S. citizens without a court warrant because the president has the inherent power to suspend the Constitution in the name of “national security.” In a unanimous vote the Court rejected their argument.
Now we have another president and another attorney general who, through their USA Patriot Act and other Executive Branch actions, are much more aggressively eroding our cherished civil liberties. I urge everyone who is concerned about these alarming attacks on our rights to come to a forum this Sunday, Feb. 1, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Montclair Public Library. Speakers from the Center for Constitutional Rights, American Civil Liberties Union, and People’s Or-ganization for Progress will talk about the Patriot Act, and what we can do to defend the Bill of Rights.
BARBARA WEBSTER
Montclair
Montclair Campaign to Defend Civil Liberties