Obama made a passing reference to civil liberties in a campaign speech this week.

We haven’t talked about what's at stake with respect to the Supreme Court.  We haven’t talked about what's at stake with respect to civil liberties.

OK - lets talk about that.

Most of the bold rhetoric surrounding civil liberties from the 2008 DNC platform was cut from the 2012 DNC platform, a change that is open to a variety of interpretations. I think that any way you slice it, clearly, mainstream Democrats aren't concerned about civil liberties issues right now and don't notice the absence of these issues in the platform. It seems clear that Democrats only care about civil liberties when Republicans are in the Whitehouse.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, as a civil libertarian, I don't have a lot of friends in the American political spectrum, and usually the friends I have are only my friends temporarily whenever they see an opportunity to criticize their political opponents. Take, for example, Glenn Reynolds' insipid call for Obama to resign last month. Of all the affronts to civil liberties that have happened over the past 12 years, he chooses this moment to call for a President to resign? Forgive me for not feeling inspired by his zeal to defend our Constitutional rights.

The civil-libertarian cause is diminished when it appears as if it's opportunistically invoked as a cudgel against ideological opponents.

Many real civil libertarians are critical of Obama's record. However, I think that this mostly represents a feeling of disappointment rather than outright frustration. In my mind the Bush administration committed three significant sins respecting civil liberties:

1. Supporting the Patriot Act - The Patriot Act was passed with broad bipartisan support but for some reason it turned into a partisan issue. There were several provisions that have been found unconstitutional and therefore I think people like me who expressed concerns about it in 2001 have been more-or-less vindicated. I wish that all of the liberal loudmouths who later seemed to join in opposition of it were as angry at the Democrats who voted for it as they are at Bush. Regardless, the Bush administration presented this bill and it is part of the Bush legacy, including the unconstitutional provisions.

2. Indefinite Detention without Charges - The indefinite detention, without charges, of a US Citizen (Jose Padilla), seized on US soil, crossed a line. It is impossible, in my mind, to rationalize applying the term "free society" to a country in which that action was legal. I am very disappointed in the amount of legal wrangling ... [ Read More (0.6k in body) ]