John Ashcroft has done more damage to the rule of Constitutional law than any public servant in memory. Citizens who cherish liberty and the federalist vision of the founders should applaud his departure.

Some of Ashcroft’s poor decisions include:

1) Violating basic privacy rights of thousands of US citizens by abuse of the Patriot Act; forcing financial institutions to spy on their customers; allowing the FBI to get search warrants with almost no judicial review, and to demand personal possessions of citizens. Ashcroft argued that the Act allows FBI agents to monitor prison attorney/client conversations without getting approval from a judge. And it went on from there.

2) Continuing the Clinton Justice Department’s lawsuit against tobacco companies. He opposed the suit when in the senate, but then proceeded to continue the most misguided large lawsuit ever brought by our government against corporations.

3) Refusing to acknowledge the states’ rights to perform their own democratic experiments. Marijuana decriminalization is a controversial issue, but targeting a resident of a state where medical marijuana is legal, when that resident is not buying or selling marijana (i.e. is growing her own), is abusing power and squandering the resources of our federal government.

4) Supporting various laws curtailing free speech even after the Supreme Court had struck down similar laws in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union.

5) In all instances, refusing to rationally discuss such issues, always demagoguing with inflamatory phrases, and implying that anybody who disagrees with him is either a traitor or morally corrupt.

Even in times as troubled as these, people who are tasked to defend us must remember what it is they are defending: not simply our people but also the values and rights which generations of Americans have fought and died for.

Ashcroft’s abuse of authority, his refusal to allow real debate, and especially his blatant disregard for Constitutional protections make him one of the most destructive forces our rights as American citizens have ever endured, and we should applaud his departure.