On the Fence? This Presidential Election and the Constitution

With regard constitutional issues, there is much at stake in this election in terms of the freedoms, both constitutional and international, that we have taken for granted and allowed to be eroded over the past 8 years.

McCain voted for the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA), which Bush signed into law. This violates the constitutional principle of habeas corpus, or protection against unlawful and unlimited imprisonment. Thanks to MCA, the president has absolute power to designate enemy combatants and torture them. The question of torture and detention is also in violation of the Geneva Conventions which dictate "fair" practices in warfare such as not involving civilians. These positions severely jeopardize the U.S.'s standing in the world as a shining example of freedom and democracy.

Cheney (and now Palin) subscribe to an erroneous belief that the vice president is a member of the legislative branch who oversees the Senate. In fact, the VP's only role there is to break a tie vote. The reason it is so important that the VP not become a member of the legislative branch is due to the brilliant constitutional principle of separation of powers: The legislative, judicial and executive branches must remain separate to avoid the sort of concentration that can lead to dictatorial or monarchic power.

The PATRIOT Act continues to violate citizens' rights to privacy (though these are not codified in the Constitution, only implied). As those with expertise in software development should be aware, their approach to finding enemies of state is highly problematic: By illegally wiretapping all American citizens' international calls, the NSA has only magnified the volume of hay they are sifting through for needles, while making zero progress on actually finding terrorists. This needs to stop.

There are many more issues at stake (separation of church and state, for example), but I'll leave you with this: The next president will select one or more Supreme Court justices. McCain has vowed to choose far-right justices who will uphold his commitment to overturn a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy. Again, it's a hot button issue -- but it doesn't have to be. People who are against it for religious or moral reasons have every right to express and uphold that view. But the government can no more effectively legislate the exact medical procedures that women will take than it can legislate other personal behavior. This is a right-to-privacy issue of the highest order.

And justices will make decisions on other areas of the Bill of Rights. The Constitution of the United States is one of the finest documents the world has ever seen -- widely copied by all modern democracies. Either we respect it, or we go the way of corruption and decline.

P.S. I wrote this to an undecided voter I know, but I posted in hopes it will help others in their decision-making.