On Politics
BY RICHARD BORRECA
Legislators deliver
a timely warningWith public patriotism high, America challenged in a war against terrorism, and allies and foes abroad lecturing us, why would Hawaii's Legislature pick this time to question federal authority?
In separate resolutions, the House and Senate ask whether the U.S. attorney general and the Justice Department have gone so far in their zeal to protect national security that individual rights are threatened.
The Senate resolution, SR 8, passed last week. It asks Hawaii's congressional delegates to help repeal any sections of the U.S. Patriot Act that might infringe on constitutional rights. The Patriot Act, passed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed more than 3,000 people, expands the powers of the FBI and police to conduct surveillance, including wiretaps and records reviews without probable cause.
So far, Hawaii is the only state to step to the side as the patriotic bandwagon rumbles past.
Our state, however, has ample cause to carefully watch the federal government: It was the government, under the guise of the U.S. military, that years before the attack on Pearl Harbor prepared plans for martial law.
In fact, when a trembling and weeping Gov. Joseph Poindexter signed the orders for martial law on the afternoon of Dec. 7, 1941, the U.S. Army seized legal and economic control of Hawaii and did not release its grasp until forced by the Supreme Court.
"The Army went beyond the governor and set up that which was lawful only in conquered enemy territory; namely, military government, which is not bound by the Constitution. And they ... threw the Constitution into the discard and set up a military dictatorship," said federal magistrate Judge J. Frank McLaughlin, in a speech quoted after marital law was lifted. His words could not be repeated sooner because martial law imposed censorship on all newspapers and radio stations.
More significantly, the military also did away with the writ of habeas corpus, meaning people could be arrested and held without charges.
Americans of Japanese, German and Italian ancestry were rounded up and jailed. Japan-ese, German and Italian Americans could not travel without military passes, assemble in groups, own firearms, cameras, radios or buy and sell liquor.
Hawaii's courts were closed; military officers acted as judges and defendants were usually arrested, charged, tried and sentenced within 48 hours.
The territory's determined attorney general, J. Garner Anthony, finally won a Supreme Court order lifting martial law in 1946, as the justices lectured the military about the rights of citizens in the United States.
"Extraordinary measures in Hawaii, however necessary, are not supportable on the mistaken premise that Hawaiian inhabitants are less entitled to constitutional protection than others," said the court.
Its final warning is as valid today as it was 57 years ago: "The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times."
Richard Borreca writes on politics every Sunday in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached at 525-8630 or by e-mail at rborreca@starbulletin.com.
