University of Virginia Library

John Epps

The Constitution In Danger?

Since Richard Milhouse
Nixon took the oath of office
in 1969, the Constitution of
the nation has taken a back
seat to "law and order",
"peace with honor", defeating
the "dangerous leftists", etc.
ad nauseum. If this was not
bad enough, the citizens of the
United States have seen fit to
applaud every bit of crumbling
of that fragile and, now, dusty
relic that used to form the
guidelines of our government.

And I am not just referring
to the Presidential war in
Indochina or the Watergate
felonies. The Constitution has
been kicked aside in almost all
areas of government in which
the President has had a hand.
The most depressing areas to
me are the Nixon Court,
formerly   dubbed the
Supreme Court, and the
occasional flashes of blindness
by Congress.

One of the earliest
about-faces during the Nixon
era was the Congressional
enactment of the controversial
and utterly dangerous
"no-knock" law. Hailed by
tough law enforcement officers
as a great step for cutting
crime, the law opened many
doors to police that should
gave remained closed. The
mistakes made by officers
utilizing the law have been
disastrous and unforgivable.
The most recently publicized
examples of these mistakes
have been the killing and
crippling of several people
suspected of breaking federal
drug abuse laws. The national
narcotics agency just last week
instructed its agents to forego
their "privilege" of not
knocking before entering since
a surprising number seemed
over-anxious to beat a
"criminal" and unconcerned
with finding the evidence of
the alleged abuses. Search
warrants will again become
standard and arrests instead of
brutality will be emphasized.
Hooray. Why didn't anyone
think of that before?

The Nixon Court has
recently acquiesced to popular
hysteria over the busing of
school children to achieve
integration and an equitable
school system. The closest
example of this is the recent
four to four decision to block a
consolidation plan in
Richmond, which would have
placed the predominantly
white school systems of the
outlying counties under the
jurisdiction of the
predominantly black school
system of Richmond.

Now we come to the most
recent and possibly the most
ridiculous backward step make
by the Court: the decision
placing the power of
censorship in the hands of
localities. That ruling paved the
way for the Charles Haughs
and George Baileys of the
nation to apply their own
puritanical concept of art and
literature on the helpless
citizens of the country. They
say the people of their area do
not want "pornography" such
as "Playboy" and "Penthouse"
in their counties. The wishes of
the majority and those in
power, etc. etc. What ever
happened to the "guaranteed"
protection of minorities that
the Constitution (Hey! I
remembered what they used to
call it!) tried to ensure? What
ever happened to freedom of
expression, freedom of the
press, and the freedom to
decide for yourself what to
read and what not to read?

The Nixon administration
hails these short-sighted
decisions made by Congress and
Messrs. Blackmum, Rhenquist,
Burger, Powell and whomever
they can convince. But, then,
the Nixon administration has
never gone out on a limb
defending personal liberties.
They, however will be gone by
1977 and Congressmen can be
ousted. But, who knows how
long the Nixon Court will be
sitting in judgment?

Our children may soon only
be able to read about the
Constitution in history class
instead of witnessing its
application on all levels of
American life.