Thursday, May 13, 2010

Making a Miranda exception?

The Obama administration wants to make an exeption to the 1966 Miranda ruling, by allowing law enforcement to question a suspect without informing them of their rights.

“We’re now dealing with international terrorists,” Eric H. Holder Jr. said, “and I think that we have to think about perhaps modifying the rules that interrogators have and somehow coming up with something that is flexible and is more consistent with the threat that we now face.”

This comes from the recent arrest of Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the Times Square bomb case.

New York Times article: Holder Backs a Miranda Limit for Terror Suspects

There is ongoing legal wrangling that non-American terrorists are 'enemy combatants' and, as such, do not have to be accorded all of the legal protections that Americans have. Mr Shahzad is a naturalized American Citizen. Does this mean he doesn't have the same rights as an American born in America? The Obama administration is setting a dangerous precident.

New York Times opinion says 'compromise would be counterproductive': You Have the Right to Remain Constitutional

John McCain says 'delay': McCain: Faisal Shahzad Should Not Have Been Mirandized

What do you think? Read Miranda to everyone? Only to Americans? Only to American-born American's?

UPDATE: Miranda warning rights trimmed bit by bit by high court (Christian Science Monitor)

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