Rand Paul called on his fellow Republicans Saturday to defend the “whole Bill of Rights,” not just the Second Amendment right “to keep and bear arms.” Speaking as one of 20 Republican presidential possibilities at a gathering in Nashua, New Hampshire, the Kentucky senator, who announced his candidacy for president on April 7, said defending constitutional liberties is good politics as well as good government.
“To win these purple states that aren’t so easy anymore, I think we need to be the party that defends the whole Bill of Rights,” said Paul, referring to swing states that could go either Republican (red) or Democrat (blue) in a presidential contest. Speaking in the state that every four years holds the first of the presidential primaries, Paul endorsed the traditional Republican themes of tax cuts and small government, while also expounding on his own theme of broadening the party’s reach to attract Independent and Democratic voters. He spoke of correcting sentencing disparities for black and white drug offenders and again raised the issue of civil asset forfeiture as a reason for opposing confirmation of Loretta Lynch as President Obama’s nominee for U.S. attorney general.
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At her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lynch expressed support for federal civil asset forfeiture laws that allow government seizure of houses, cars, and other property allegedly involved in a crime, even when the property owner is not convicted of, or even charged with, a crime. Originally a legal weapon used against pirates and foreign governments, asset forfeiture has been used increasingly by both state and federal governments in recent decades in the fight against drug crimes.
Paul is cosponsor of a bill in Congress to curb federal forfeiture powers. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, a former prosecutor, recently signed a bill into law that bans civil forfeitures in that state. In an editorial entitled “Loretta Lynch’s Money Pot,” the Wall Street Journal last fall observed that as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Lynch had turned the office into “a major forfeiture operation, bringing in more that $113 million in civil actions from 123 cases between 2011 and 2013, according to the Justice Department.”
Opposing Lynch is one of the many policy positions that puts Paul at odds with fellow Republicans, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, one of three Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who voted to recommend Lynch’s confirmation to the full Senate. Graham, who told the gathering in New Hampshire Saturday that he will decide on making a presidential bid within a few weeks, was joined by Republican Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Jeff Flake of Arizona in voting for confirmation. Overall, the committee voted 12-8 in favor of Lynch.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a probable presidential candidate and favorite of many “establishment” Republicans and deep-pocket donors, said in Concord, New Hampshire, Thursday night that he supports Lynch’s confirmation.
Paul also invoked the Fourth Amendment against the federal government’s daily dragnet collections of telephone records and e-mails. “I’m a Republican who believes in the right to privacy,” he said. “It doesn’t mean collecting 300 million people’s phone records.” The Fourth Amendment bans “unreasonable searches and seizures” and stipulates that “no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause … and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.”
“The Fourth Amendment is not consistent with a warrant that says ‘Mr. Verizon’ on it,” Paul said. “Last I heard ‘Mr. Verizon’ isn’t a person.”
“Your phone records are yours,” Paul said emphatically. “It’s none of the government’s damn business what you’re doing on your phone.”
Paul’s defense of civil liberties might be considered both good news and bad news for freedom-loving Americans. The good news is that a U.S. senator and presidential candidate has reminded his fellow Republicans (and anyone else listening) that the Bill of Rights includes nine “other” amendments besides the Second Amendment and its guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms. The bad news is that so many politicians need such a reminder and so few have shown an inclination to heed it.
