Oath of Office Index Score: 0A score of 0 means that Sen. Ensign has acted to support 0% of a slate of bills in the 110th Congress of 2007-2008 that support, protect and defend the United States Constitution.
By our reckoning, Senator Ensign has supported none of the crucial bills dedicated to supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States of America. An accounting of Sen. Ensign's failure to live up to his Oath of Office includes the following:- From the transfer of Total Information Awareness into the National Security Agency under codenames like topsail and basketball, through warrantless wiretape, seizures of massive amounts of cell phone and email records, and even the systematic entry of the DNA of innocent Americans into gigantic government databases, we have seen a dramatic effort by the government to watch over the most personal aspects of our lives. Thanks to these secretive government programs, Americans can no longer assume that their postal mail, email, phone calls, commercial activity, and other kinds of personal activity are at all private.
Through it all, there has been almost no congressional oversight. Now, a few senators are asking for that to change. Two bills have been introduced this year that would force the White House to cooperate with efforts by Congress to gain oversight of the growing network of government databases used to spy on Americans. The bills, S.236 and S.495 (entitled the Federal Agency Data Mining Reporting Act of 2007 and the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2007, respectively), are co-sponsored by a small group of senators. Sadly, Senator Ensign has cosponsored neither. That is simply shameful.
- S. 576 is a bill proposed in the Senate to repeal many of the most onerous features of the Military Commissions Act. If passed, some of its main acts would be to:
- Restore the right of habeas corpus for people detained by the U.S.
- Narrow the definition of the MCA term "unlawful enemy combatant" to individuals who directly participate in attacks against the United States.
- Let United States detainees invoke the ethical codes of the Geneva Conventions again.
- Let U.S. detainees obtain a civilian lawyer for their defense.
- Prohibit the use of evidence garnered through torture.
- Prohibit the use of hearsay, upon the judge's discretion.
- Let juries know how statements were obtained from detainees.
- Permit federal appeals courts to review the decisions of military commissions.
In short, S. 576 would restore respect for the Constitution and a modicum of humanity to the government of the United States. Sadly, Senator Ensign has failed to recognize how important the restoration of constitutional standards are to our country. Perhaps he ought to review his oath of office again.
Actions to support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America that Sen. Ensign could have taken but unfortunately chose not to take:- From the transfer of Total Information Awareness into the National Security Agency under codenames like topsail and basketball, through warrantless wiretape, seizures of massive amounts of cell phone and email records, and even the systematic entry of the DNA of innocent Americansinto gigantic government databases, we have seen a dramatic effort by the government to watch over the most personal aspects of our lives. Thanks to these secretive government programs, Americans can no longer assume that their postal mail, email, phone calls, commercial activity, and other kinds of personal activity are at all private.
Through it all, there has been almost no congressional oversight. Now, a few senators are asking for that to change. Two bills have been introduced this year that would force the White House to cooperate with efforts by Congress to gain oversight of the growing network of government databases used to spy on Americans. The bills, S. 236 and S. 495 (entitled the Federal Agency Data Mining Reporting Act of 2007 and the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2007, respectively), are co-sponsored by a small group of senators. Sadly, Senator Ensign has cosponsored neither. That is simply shameful.
- S. 576 is a bill proposed in the Senate to repeal many of the most onerous features of the Military Commissions Act. If passed, some of its main acts would be to:
- Restore the right of habeas corpus for people detained by the U.S.
- Narrow the definition of the MCA term "unlawful enemy combatant" to individuals who directly participate in attacks against the United States.
- Let United States detainees invoke the ethical codes of the Geneva Conventions again.
- Let U.S. detainees obtain a civilian lawyer for their defense.
- Prohibit the use of evidence garnered through torture.
- Prohibit the use of hearsay, upon the judge's discretion.
- Let juries know how statements were obtained from detainees.
- Permit federal appeals courts to review the decisions of military commissions.
In short, S. 576 would restore respect for the Constitution and a modicum of humanity to the government of the United States. Sadly, Senator Ensign has failed to recognize how important the restoration of constitutional standards are to our country. Perhaps he ought to review his oath of office again.
| | Anti-Constitution Score: 50A score of 50 means that Senator Ensign has acted to support 50% of a slate of unconstitutional and anti-constitutional policies in the 110th Congress.
Regressive, destructive, and downright unAmerican actions Senator Ensign has taken that contribute to an Anti-Constitution Score of 50:
When religious zealots gain government office and use the power of their position to cram religious ideas down the throats of citizens, that is an unconstitutional use of government to establish religion, forbidden by the First Amendment. When citizens complain about cases of government-enabled proselytization, zealots in office could relent, but sometimes depend on the deep pockets of their government office to intimidate citizens. Go ahead and sue us, they say, depending on citizens to back down because they do not have the money. As a way of ameliorating such economic intimidation of our civil rights, courts have occasionally awarded plaintiffs a reimbursement of court costs when defendants were in clear violation of the law and had refused requests to return to legal behavior prior to a lawsuit. Such reimbursements make sense, because they preserve the ability of citizens to keep government constitutional, which is necessary to the rule of law. They also serve to punish government officeholders from using their positions to flagrantly violate the law and the constitution, behavior that is corrosive to a nation of laws.
Senator John Ensign has cosponsored S. 415, a bill that would prohibit federal courts from reimbursing the court costs of plaintiffs in lawsuits regarding religion in government, even when they are bringing suit against a government body that is in clear and flagrant violation of the law. This bill would make it impossible for all but the most wealthy Americans to seek redress when the government fails to obey its own rules. Fear a government that seeks to evade accountability. And shame upon a Senator who places him self on the side of protecting a Bible-thumping government from its citizens.
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