How will the new homeland security bill affect you?

csmonitor.com: "What aspects of the bill could become targets of constitutional challenges?

"Two areas top the list, the extensive reliance on secrecy and any attempt to use US military personnel for domestic law enforcement. For nearly 125 years, it has been illegal for any federal troops to be used directly in law enforcement actions within US borders.

"The so-called Posse Comitatus Act was passed in part out of practical considerations. Soldiers are trained to shoot and kill the enemy. Law officers are trained to safeguard life and property by upholding the law. But the Posse Comitatus Act is also a recognition that the framers of the Constitution had a deep distrust of centralized power, particularly centralized military power that might be used against the people. State militias were preferred over a national army. In times of major disaster or emergency, it has been state governors - not the president - who call out that state's contingent of the national guard. This tradition and legal posture could change if the Bush administration seeks the ability to unilaterally deploy military power to any place in the nation where there is a perceived or actual terror threat. A second area of potential constitutional challenge is the use of secrecy within the Homeland Security Department. For example, in accord with the recent ruling of a federal appeals court, Homeland Security officials could apply to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court for secret authorization to electronically monitor an individual in the US suspected of terrorist ties. If the person was a visa-holder, he could be taken into custody and held without notification of any of his family member or access to a lawyer. Citing national security, his hearing before an immigration judge could be conducted in secret, including withholding all information about his presence at the court from clerk's office records. The individual could then be deported to a country with a particularly ruthless in! telligence service that nonetheless maintained friendly relations with the US. The resulting interrogation may or may not yield valuable intelligence to help identify other suspects in the US. Critics of this type of treatment see police state tactics that violate fundamental aspects of American liberty. Supporters see a hard-fisted and effective way to root out those within the US who may be plotting mass murder and destruction.

csmonitor.com: "In what ways might the bill constrain personal freedoms?"

"It will help the government identify potential suspects. After that, anyone identified as a potential terrorist or even a possible associate of a terrorist may be subject to surveillance, interrogation, and secret detention. If the president determines the suspect is an "enemy combatant," that person - even a US citizen - may be held indefinitely, without access to a lawyer or family members, in a military prison. If the suspect has visa status, he may be interrogated and then deported after a secret hearing. Overall, the impact on personal freedoms will depend on the person involved. A Sunday school teacher in Des Moines, Iowa, probably will notice little change. But a Muslim prayer leader in Brooklyn, N.Y. sympathetic to radical Islamic causes will soon be under a federal microscope, if he isn't already."

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