?Napolitano on Arizona:
“I cannot begin to tell you how steamed I am when any government violates first principles of our Constitution. Never before in our modern history has an American government purported to give police the power to stop someone because of their appearance and then require the stopped person to prove a negative on the spot–namely, that he or she is not in the US illegally. In the American justice system, the government must prove everything about the defendant’s behavior; it is a profound violation of due process to impose upon the stopped person the obligation of coming forward with any proof of anything in order to avoid the summary loss of freedom. This is a consistent and unchallenged component of our jurisprudence. Someone should ask Governor Jan Brewer what an illegal alien looks like–she will not be able to answer. As well, can she tell of a person’s immigration status by looking at that person? I can’t imagine that she could answer in the affirmative, yet she has purported to give to police the mental subjective discretion to do so. This is East Germany and the ante-bellum South all in one.”
on Bush/Cheney:
“What President Bush did with the suspension of habeas corpus, with the whole concept of Guantánamo Bay, with the whole idea that he could avoid and evade federal laws, treaties, federal judges and the constitution was blatantly unconstitutional — and in some cases criminal,” Napolitano said. “They should have been indicted. They absolutely should have been indicted. For torturing, for spying, for arresting without warrants. I’d like to say they should be indicted for lying but believe it or not, unless you’re under oath, lying is not a crime.”
on Surveillance:
“Those who believe the Constitution means what it says should tremble at every effort to weaken any of its protections. The Constitution protects all “persons” and all “people” implicated by government behavior. So the government should be required, as it was until FISA, to obtain a 4th Amendment warrant to conduct surveillance of anyone, American or not, in the U.S. or not.”