by hilzoy
Jack Balkin has posted a piece by Walter Murphy, a superb constitutional scholar at Princeton. He was flying to a conference; I’ll quote most of his account:
“When I tried to use the curb-side check in at the Sunport, I was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list. I was instructed to go inside and talk to a clerk. At this point, I should note that I am not only the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence (emeritus) but also a retired Marine colonel. I fought in the Korean War as a young lieutenant, was wounded, and decorated for heroism. I remained a professional soldier for more than five years and then accepted a commission as a reserve office, serving for an additional 19 years.”
“I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines. One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: “Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that.” I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. “That’ll do it,” the man said. “
“After carefully examining my credentials, the clerk asked if he could take them to TSA officials. I agreed. He returned about ten minutes later and said I could have a boarding pass, but added: “I must warn you, they=re going to ransack your luggage.” On my return flight, I had no problem with obtaining a boarding pass, but my luggage was “lost.” Airlines do lose a lot of luggage and this “loss” could have been a mere coincidence. In light of previous events, however, I’m a tad skeptical.”
“I confess to having been furious that any American citizen would be singled out for governmental harassment because he or she criticized any elected official, Democrat or Republican. That harassment is, in and of itself, a flagrant violation not only of the First Amendment but also of our entire scheme of constitutional government. This effort to punish a critic states my lecture’s argument far more eloquently and forcefully than I ever could. Further, that an administration headed by two men who had “had other priorities” than to risk their own lives when their turn to fight for their country came up, should brand as a threat to the United States a person who did not run away but stood up and fought for his country and was wounded in battle, goes beyond the outrageous. Although less lethal, it is of the same evil ilk as punishing Ambassador Joseph Wilson for criticizing Bush’s false claims by “outing” his wife, Valerie Plaime, thereby putting at risk her life as well as the lives of many people with whom she had had contact as an agent of the CIA.”
Jack Balkin says this about Prof. Murphy:
“For those who do not know, Professor Murphy is easily the most distinguished scholar of public law in political science. His works on both constitutional theory and judicial behavior are classics in the field. Bluntly, legal scholarship that does not engage many themes in his book, briefly noted below, Constitutional Democracy, may be legal, but cannot be said to be scholarship. As interesting, for present purposes, readers of the book will discover that Murphy is hardly a conventional political or legal liberal. While he holds some opinions, most notably on welfare, similar to opinions held on the political left, he is a sharp critic of ROE V. WADE, and supported the Alito nomination.”
I will add that while I have regretted not taking his Constitutional Interpretation course for decades, I knew a lot of people who did, and who talked about it extensively. If Prof. Murphy was some sort of flaming liberal, that fact was lost on us. He was brilliant and not given either to bias or to imagining things. Someone in the comments at Balkinization suggests that this story must be due to “Bush Derangement Syndrome”; I imagine that if I tried hard, I might be able to come up with a few people I’ve met who strike me as less likely to have made up a story for that reason, but I don’t think the list would be all that long.
In this country, free speech is supposed to be protected. The right to free speech includes the right to be critical of the government. It is not just illegal to use speech critical of the government to put someone on a no fly list, it’s antithetical to everything our country is supposed to stand for. The right to criticize the President without worrying about government retaliation is one of the most basic freedoms we have, and we should not tolerate any infringement of it. It’s bad enough that the FBI has been spying on demonstrations. At least in that case, they have the excuse that they are on the lookout for plans of violence. That’s not a very good excuse in a lot of cases — my favorite being the group who feed vegetarian meals to the homeless (discussed here.) But putting people on the no fly list because they criticize the President, or detaining antiwar protesters who wear black, is over a whole different set of lines, lines we should never, never cross.
While I admit to suffering from an intense case of BDS, it should be noted that all the information about peace marches and ransacking luggage comes from a single low level airline clerk.
I know where free speech is being suppressed with a vengeance.
Not always officially. Sometimes like this.
Oddly, DaveC, I couldn’t find a list of exactly where the speech codes are. Personally, I’ve opposed them all my life, as do a lot of academics.
I think that clicking on the map will will do a summary by state, and there is news site elswhere on the site. My understanding is that FIRE is generally composed of academics that are opposed to speech codes. Restriction of certain offensive speech is one of those things that has gone overboard in the last couple of decades. Almost any type of speech could be offensive to somebody, so being policing offensive speech is too difficult to do fairly.
Some of my family members were pulled aside for special consideration on our recent flight. It took about 20 minutes to get things straightened out. I think that this was some sort of random thing but the airline check-in people weren’t specific on details.
Dave C- I don’t know that I believe those speech codes count for anything. Republicans are always claiming that since Bush doesn’t lock people up for questioning him we haven’t lost any of our freedoms. So show me where someone got locked up for violating university speech codes, or I will consider them irrelevant.
On the off chance that anyone is wondering why a Marine would have the Army version of the US’s second highest award for valor, I can’t tell you. I did find this though, so I suspect his unit was fighting under an Army commands at the time.
MURPHY, WALTER F., JR.
Citation:
The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Walter F. Murphy, Jr., Second Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy of the United Nations while serving as a rifle platoon leader with the First Marines, First Marine Division (Reinforced), in action against enemy aggressor forces in North Central Korea, on 10 June 1951. Second Lieutenant Murphy was leading an attack on a strongly fortified enemy-held hill, when his unit came under vicious mortar and automatic weapons fire, inflicting numerous casualties. Despite a wound sustained in this initial burst of withering fire, Lieutenant Murphy refusing evacuation, reorganized his platoon, and led it in a series of tenacious assaults against the enemy emplacements. Inspired by the unflinching courage of their valiant leader, his men charged forward through a hail of intense fire, over open, rugged terrain, determined to attain their objective. Though only Lieutenant Murphy and twelve of his resolute soldiers reached the enemy strongpoint, the stubborn foe was routed and a base established on the key terrain to provide covering fire for friendly units.
General Headquarters Far East Command: General Order No. 207 (August 13, 1951)
http://www.homeofheroes.com/valor/1_Citations/05_korea-dsc/dsc_18korea_navyUSMC.html
I know that reading the above should not make me any more disgusted with this administration than I was before, but it does.
Damn, it just goes to show you how tricky these terrorist symps are. He probably stormed that emplacement in order to allay suspicions. Tricky, very tricky that.
DaveC: Some of my family members were pulled aside for special consideration on our recent flight. It took about 20 minutes to get things straightened out.
Were they told they would be denied boarding passes?
kvenlander: While I admit to suffering from an intense case of BDS, it should be noted that all the information about peace marches and ransacking luggage comes from a single low level airline clerk.
True, but airline clerks generally know (IME) exactly what will and won’t be a problem in checking in. That’s what they do: they’re in a better position than anyone else at the airline to witness who gets a boarding pass and who doesn’t.
About seven or eight years ago, a British Ambassador was denied a boarding pass when he presented a diplomatic passport to the airline clerk: the clerk apparently kept insisting that this black man in front of her, showing her a one-way ticket (the ambassador was leaving with his family for a three-year posting), would have to show her proof from his employer that he really did have a job to go to, or have a return ticket, or she couldn’t permit him to get on the plane. The problem was resolved quite fast (when you’re an ambassador, these things tend to get resolved quite fast), and British Airways blandly claimed there was “no racism” involved: it was just the first time that the clerk had seen a British diplomatic passport of that design. (This was about 2000: the design changed in 1995. Passports remain valid for 10 years.)
What it suggested to me, having stood in queues behind many European Community citizens who happened not to be white, who were attempting to enter or leave the UK, was that the airline clerk had simply used what to her was standard behavior towards a black person: obstruct, delay, deny, question, assume bad intent, refuse to listen to explanations – and it was her bad luck that she hadn’t recognized the diplomatic passport and realized that this was not a person to play those standard racist games on.
A lot of other British citizens who happen not to be white – and a lot of us who are and who had noticed this unequal treatment – pointed out that the ambassador’s experience was not unique: it was just unusual in that it was resolved so fast because all he had to do was get hold of her supervisor and show her supervisor his diplomatic passport.
Don’t get me started on the time I had a choice of standing in a queue to get into the US behind a man travelling alone and a family of six, picked the man travelling alone as likely to get through faster (neither were white) and realized my mistake when the man’s duty-free bag shifted and I noticed he’d flown in from Dubai….
After the recent story about the FBI detaining and questioning protestors just because they were wearing black — linked to by hilzoy above — and the other that the NYPD sent undercover agents all over the country prior to the 2004 GOP convention to spy on peace groups, none of this surprises me anymore. Disgusts and saddens me, but doesn’t surprise me.
Nice to see how quickly DaveC can engage in a robust round of subject-changing, though. The day he stays on topic and doesn’t resort to “Look! A big distracting thingy!” to defend his Fearless Leader I’ll probably drop over dead.
PS: While FIRE has, in theory, some laudable goals, they’re mostly a stalking horse for right-wing idiots of the “Hey, how come they can call each other ‘nigger’?” sort.
I wish I felt confidence that any of the leading Democratic candidates would toss this sort of thing out by executive order the first morning they’re in office. Alas, I suspect much of it’s going to become part of the permanent apparatus of government – too easy to rationalize, too tempting in too many ways. (“But of course I’ll just use it for good,” said Gandalf as he put on the One Ring.)
Reading in a hurry, hilzoy, but this absolutely sucks. Sorry I don’t have time to offer much other than “me, too”.
Well, you have to remember that somewhere at the TSA there’s a guy in charge of putting names on the no-fly list. And they’re probably as competent as Monica Goodling or Mike Brown or George whatever-his-name-was that got canned at NASA. And this clod isn’t going to stand up and say that he’s not putting someone on the list, is he?
And please remember that the CIA and NSA have names that they’re not putting on the list, because they don’t want the suspects to find out they’re under suspicion. The no-fly list is worse than useless–it’s stupid.
The no-fly list is worse than useless–it’s stupid.
Agreed. How useful is it really to have “James Smith” on there for example.
How useful is it really to have “James Smith” on there for example.
Extremely useful. Out of all the James Smiths in the US, one of them well might be not safe to fly. Without any of the trouble and expense of investigation, he’s banned!
I can you tell that twice my boarding pass has been held up because my name (which you have to admit is not that unusual) was on the list. Took about 10-15 minutes each time to get it cleared up.
Not a major thing, but if you multiply those 10-15 minutes by all the John Miller’s out there, it really adds up.
DaveC, I am very much against speech codes, on campus or anywhere. But there is a difference between a college or university creating a speech code (and although imprisonment may not have resulted from violation I have heard or read of expulsions) and the government doing so.
Well, I’m happy to hate on the Bush administration as much as anyone, but I can’t help but think that the clerk is having a bit of fun with Prof. Murphy. There was an article a few years ago in the WSJ (not an editorial/op-ed) about how people with names like John Smith end up on the no-fly list — and what it came down to was that when someone is put on the list and the name is given to the airlines, they don’t match the exact name, but instead do things like looking removing all the vowels and matching just the consonants. This picks up more people than are actually on the no-fly list. So when the clerk says “you name is on the no-fly list” to an ex-Marine and current Professor, they mean “your name sort-of matches some name on the no-fly list” not “you are on the the no-fly list” (except in those, presumably extremely rare, cases where in fact a person on the no-fly list is flying).
OTOH, I can see some “loyal Bushie” at TSA reading something about Prof. Murphy in the news and putting his name on the list out of spite, which, while different from it coming from the top down, is scary enough.
A co-worker found his name on the list and was able to get around it by using his first and middle initials (or maybe his full name instead of initials, since he goes by his initials) – which says something about the utility of such a list, of course.
When I fly, I always check the passenger list for DaveC.’s name before boarding.
I have enough worries while flying without some guy handing snakes around on the plane as a diversion.
Good post, Hilzoy.
There is something funky about this story, however. There is either more, or less, to come.
I wonder, for the sake of that thing called journalism, why a constitutional scholar at a prestigious university wouldn’t call a name reporter at a big newspaper as a conduit to get the story out there, rather than letting the story climb the grapevine.
If the main facts of the story hold up, however, it could end up reminding us of a piece of tape on a lock at famous hotel many years ago.
Mr. Thullen, I can offer a theory as to why Mr. Murphy did not call a journalist: he doesn’t care to make himself the focal point of a political storm. Who would?
Regarding Food Not Bombs (the group who feeds the homeless that Hilzoy pointed out):
Food Not Bombs does vegan meals, not vegetarian. Clearly, they must be violent anarchists (see: Haymarket for why anarchism is punishable by death, regardless of whether or not any violence is committed).
Erasmussimo:
A logical theory and probably true.
However, giving permission to a blogger to relate the story seems like choosing a political hurricane over a political firestorm.
Though I take it that Murphy is an older gentleman who might not realize the mischief we’re up to in this new medium, where a chat over the back fence ends up revealing more than Brittany getting out of a limo.
Isn’t it much more likely that some low-level IRA-connected schmuck named Walter Murphy got on the list and this respectable Walter Murphy got mixed up with him?
Food Not Bombs does vegan meals, not vegetarian.
Oh, well, obviously they’re evil. Just look at what they use for cheese.
Flying is becoming the test tube for civil rights denial. Perhaps understandable to some degree after 9/11 (and the only reason most Americans tolerate it, I’m sure), but once the precedents there are accepted, it won’t be long before they’re applied to other arenas. I don’t know what the answer is, but asking our candidates for President to weigh in on it is a very good start, IMO.
John Thullen:
I can suggest why he didn’t push the story through the media: maybe he did and they didn’t bother with it. I once interviewed for a government job that involved tracking the locations of all cars and trucks in an entire city. I tried to get some newspapers interested and none of them cared. Apparently, that sort of thing is just not interesting.
I recall reading a story wherein an Air Marshal complained that he had, of all things, a quota to meet each month. He had to find a certain number of ‘suspicious flyers’ — which got added to the list.
I wish I felt confidence that any of the leading Democratic candidates would toss this sort of thing out by executive order the first morning they’re in office.
Well, it’s for @#$ sure not one of the Republican candidates will.
Try putting your money into the campaign of former Constitutional-law professor Barack Obama.
I have a soldier with a top secret clearance who was flying with me today who is on a no-fly list. He also has an Irish name. He is not blaming some nefarious anti free speech cabal, but the relatively fair application of terrorist standards that do not simply target muslims.
Read somewhere awhile back this same thing happened to the guy who wrote ‘Bush’s Brain’, a detail account of how Karl Rove came to be who and what he is. I’ve also read that Saddam and his sons are still on the list, along with Osama.