Fighting Terror Through Courts: Not Good for Courts, Not Good for Safety

Conn Carroll / May 14, 2010

Since coming into office the Obama administration has insisted on approaching all terrorist attacks as a law-enforcement-only problem. For purely ideological reasons, Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to learn what the rest of the country already learned from the 1990s and 9/11: that this unconventional enemy requires the government to use all lawful tools at its disposal, including holding some terrorists captured in the U.S. as enemy combatants.

But now that he is in power and has some actual responsibility, Holder is beginning to learn the limits of the law-enforcement only approach. Unfortunately he has decided to change our law enforcement system to fit the fight against terror instead of treating it as the war that it is.

So this past Sunday, and again yesterday, Holder said we needed to “update” our Miranda warning rules to deal with “with international terrorism.” This is not only unwise but also most likely unconstitutional. (more…)