University of Virginia Library

Comic Book Law

In his never ending search for truth,
justice, and the American way, Superman
sometimes had to violate your constitutional
rights. With his x-ray vision, he could see
through your walls, your clothes, and
anything else you might throw around you
(except lead) to spot any nefarious act you
might be guilty of. And his super-hearing was
a better wire-tap than anything the progress
men at General Electric have been able to
come up with.

Apparently, Attorney General Mitchell has
not forgotten the lessons of law enforcement
he learned from Superman comics. He
recently got the Congress to pass a law which
would allow law enforcement agents to search
a man's home without knocking once they
had obtained a special warrant, which they
can do by convincing a judge that you might
have some illegal drugs lying around the
house. The agents no longer have to tell you
to open up in the name of the law and give
you a chance to flush everything down the
toilet; this will make it a lot easier for the
guys at the Justice Department to get the
goods on those dastardly drug fiends,
something that will allow everybody to rest
easier.

Taken by itself, this abrogation of privacy
would probably not be a cause for alarm,
unless the judiciary and the Justice Department
misuse the power now vested in them.
But when viewed along with the numerous
other examples of Big Brotherism which
afflict the nation, an alarming pattern
emerges. Although the Courts generally refuse
to admit wiretap evidence, the Attorney
General can still authorize taps at his
discretion: the FBI files are full of transcripts,
and they don't come from gangsters' phones.
The Army and Navy maintain extensive
domestic intelligence operations, keeping abs
on pacifists and other dangerous opponents of
the military establishment. The FBI has agents
throughout the country to maintain a watch
on dangerous radical types like the ones who
threaten the national security by showing up
at demonstrations for integration at the
University.

The potential uses of the information are
frightening to contemplate. In a recent article
on the FBI, Tom Wicker stated that only the
personal integrity of J. Edgar Hoover prevents
wholesale blackmail of the Congressmen and
other important figures about whom the FBI
has unearthed damaging information; and
even Hoover uses that information as a tacit
lever to insure full FBI appropriations.

The possibility that men less scrupulous
than Hoover are now in, or could come into,
possession of such information is hardly
remote. And it sticks in our craw to realize
that the Government is using our tax money
to spy on us. At least you could trust
Superman.