Dear Sen. Sanders,
In the latest news there are reports that President Obama plans to issue an executive order disallowing gun purchases by those on the DHS “No-Fly” list and “Terrorist Watch List”. While many leaders support this move, I am urging you to consider opposition to such use of these lists.
I've looked up to you, Bernie, for leadership on a number of important pro-democracy issues – primary among them is the idea that we should strive to improve our democracy through the creation of a more egalitarian economic and political system. The use of government-maintained “black lists” to limit the rights of listed individuals certainly runs counter to that idea. People so listed would not have equal treatment under the law.
This is the reason I am writing – the use of government-maintained lists to exclude listed individuals from being able to purchase fire-arms is a violation of their civil rights under the Constitution, in particular the 2nd Amendment, but also, and even more importantly, a violation of their Constitutional right to Due Process under the 5th and 14th.
In general, “Due Process” mandates that an individual is entitled to adequate notice, a hearing, and a neutral judge in those cases where he or she is facing a deprivation of life, liberty, or property (Goldberg v. Kelly 397 U.S. 254 (1970).) With the usage of these government “watch lists” — blacklists, the affected individuals get no notice, have no hearing, and there is no neutral judge. Also there is no provision for the individual's legal representation to be involved in the process, or any method for appeal. In short: the use of these blacklists lies outside of our legal system – extralegal certainly, perhaps illegal. In fact the ACLU has already filed a class-action challange to the government's "No-Fly" list, arguing that it violates airline passengers' Constitutional rights to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and to due process of law. Certainly a similar case can and will be made in regards to the use of the “Terror Watch List” to limit the purchase of firearms without due process of law as according to the 2nd, the 5th, and perhaps 14th Amendments.
There are grave concerns about the use of these blacklists simply as a matter of practice – even apart from our civil rights. By 2014 there were estimated to be approximately 1,000,000 – 1,500,000 names on the Terrorist Watch list alone. This is a major concern for a number of practical reasons, as outlined by the ACLU:
The lists are based on information from various sources, but little is known about the mechanisms in place to verify or update the information.
The lists may include mistaken identities and often have incomplete information. Individuals with foreign names are particularly vulnerable when it comes to incomplete information.
There are examples of the lists being used to unfairly target law-abiding citizen who may have controversial political and religious beliefs.
"False positives" can impose high costs on individuals, from inconvenient time delays to potential employment and housing discrimination. The recent announcement by the Combined Federal Campaign that its funding recipients must certify that their employees are not on certain watch lists could lead to discrimination claims by employees. Federal and state laws prohibit an employer from asking a potential employee their date of birth and their nationality until after they have been hired. However, that information may be necessary to determine that an individual is not among those on a watch list.
Currently, there is no uniform system to address grievances, clarify "false positives"when multiple individuals have the same name, or establish recourse measures that would to allow those wrongfully included on the list to clear their names.
Clearly these are major concerns, yet the expansion of the use of Terrorist Watch List and the No-Fly List to be included as part of a firearms purchase background check implies that the lists are valid. The expanded use of these lists implies that there may be yet other uses for the lists – for instance, should the government offer employment to those on the lists?
To think that there are at least one million names on the Terrorist Watch list means that there are just about one out of every 300 people in the US over the age of 5 named on that list. These are not terrorists on the government blacklist, they are our neighbors and friends. So I urge you, Sen. Sanders, to work in to help us preserve our civil rights under the Constitution. We cannot have one out of 300 individuals in the US living in the status of second-class citizens.
Sincerely,
Thomas Twinnings
