Civil Liberties

Will you defend civil liberties at least as vigorously as national security?

Background  Across the nation there is growing concern over legislative erosion of civil liberties including indefinite detention of American Citizens on U.S. soil in the NDAA, the loss of our basic rights to privacy in CISPA, and the imposition of longer sentences for those convicted of a crime in order to increase profits in the private prison industrial complex.

NDAA:      Wikipedia      President Obama Signed the National Defense Authorization Act — Now What?                         Obama’s Signing Statement on the NDAA: I Have the Power to Detain Americans… but I Won’t

CISPA:      Wikipedia      Opposition to CISPA is Growing!       Stop CISPA?       CISPA Will Give US Unprecedented Access

Prison Industrial Complex:      Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration                           Private Prison Companies Want You Locked Up      Private Prisons: Profits for Crime

Brooke Clarke

I think the War On Terror should be ended and the Bill of Rights restored.  The office of the President has way too much power and needs to be rolled back to the powers granted in the Constitution.  In addition the presidential pardon needs to be removed by an act of Congress.  Along with that provision made for criminal prosecution of government workers who subvert the Constitution or laws of the land.  Congress has passed many laws to limit the powers of the president and the next president finds a way around them.  This has to stop.

William Courtney

No response received.

Larry Fritzlan

No response received.

Mike Halliwell

The Bill of Rights is the bulwark of our civil liberties, and I would preserve and defend all of it.  If we become a police state in the course of trying to defend ourselves from terrorism, the terrorists will have won.  I believe that the Chinese water torture (now called water boarding) is indeed torture.  We should not use any information extraction techniques we would not want to have our own troops subjected to.  My vigorous defense of the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Section 51 of California’s Civil Code) has embroiled me in a five year long struggle against dishonest Sonoma County Superior Court judges.  The bottom 99% has more power than the top 1%, but the most powerful often do not play fair.  It is the tenacity and staying power of corrupt elites which gives them their advantages.

Jared Huffman

I am extremely committed to defending civil liberties.  I got my start as a civil rights attorney defending women and minorities in workplace discrimination cases and Title IX cases and, again, I have a record rather than just rhetoric to show where I stand as legislator.

Stacey Lawson

No response received.

John Lewallen

I oppose the Patriot Act and the indefinite detention provisions in the Military Authorization Act.  I believe the current federal crackdown on legal medical marijuana is building a federal police state.  There is a huge outlaw marijuana industry in Northern California, and we are losing our civil liberties because we do not demand an end to federal prohibition of marijuana.  Please, Occupy movement, let’s work together to end the violence, corruption, economic waste, and environmental damage caused by the federal prohibition of marijuana.

Tiffany Renée

Yes.  As a long-time member of ACLU, and having a foundational education in journalism, I deeply value our constitution and the Bill of Rights.  As a web developer, I am technically knowledgeable when it comes to free press (especially as it pertains to the internet) and the erosion of privacy.  Education is essential to national security, as is the protection of civil liberties.

Education has always been the seed and core of American ingenuity and innovation.  We’re now in danger of falling behind the rest of the world in competing in the 21st century global economy.  We trail in math and science proficiency.  Students are challenged to thrive in the current system despite increasing class sizes, dwindling classroom resources, yearly increases to college tuition rates, and being saddled with more and more student loan debt.  As the first in my family to graduate from college, while a single mother of two daughters, I learned the value of hard work and education.  Both of my grandfathers were tinkerers and inventors.  Learning from their skill and mastery, I found immense value in being a maker of useful things.  We need to inspire our youth to be makers again.

As your next Congresswoman, education will be a top priority for me, including:

• Reversing cuts to education funding at every level.
• A student loan finance reform bill that makes automatic cuts to student debt interest rates and keeps them at historically low levels, putting hundreds of dollars annually back into the pockets of students and families.
• Increased investment and focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) in K-12 and post-secondary curriculum, educating and preparing our future workforce and investing in a strong manufacturing sector.
• Addressing Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind.  No Child Left Behind is a failure and Race to the Top doesn’t do enough to improve it.  We need to bring back shared decision making, bringing all stakeholders to the table in evaluating policy that defines student performance standards.

Daniel Roberts

Yes, “sacrifice liberty for security and we have neither.”

Norman Solomon

Civil liberties are at the core of American society.  I believe the federal government can protect its citizens without undermining the Constitution and human rights.  I will continue to speak out against the undermining of habeas corpus that has been a reality under the last two administrations.  Torture is never acceptable.  By extension, we should never extradite prisoners to countries known to have policies that do not meet this basic standard of human decency.  I have publicly criticized the Obama administration for failing to keep its promise to close Guantanamo Bay prison and try those prisoners in the U.S. criminal justice system.  I will continue to take a strong position on this issue.

We also need to redefine “national security.”  Our nation is not secure when our schools are woefully underfunded and our roads and infrastructure are crumbling beneath us.  True security of our country depends on a healthy economy, environmental protection, public education, quality healthcare, civil liberties and other indicators of a society that cares for all of its people.

Susan Adams

More so. National Security must start at home, with our own citizens being secure in their homes and in their civil liberties. There can be no trade off. While we need intelligence agencies, we have seen their failures, at the highest levels, which could have averted the 9/11 disaster. We must have strict oversight on all such agencies, and limit their ability to use covert actions. Allowing indefinite detention for Americans is unthinkable, and we must overturn laws that compromise civil liberties and not keep expanding them, such as CISPA. I would definitely have voted against this if I were in Congress now.

Andy Caffrey

Will you defend civil liberties at least as vigorously as national security?
Yes. For example: I will smoke joints in protests of Obama’s War on Medicine, as a medical marijuana patient and as a Green and Democratic Congressional candidate. I’ll do even more in DC.
I have fought for the rights and respect of the local homeless community for over four years.