Justice, et. al., have insisted on a number of secret hearings and trials in the wake of 9/11. Some of these cases are finally headed to the Supremes for review, as the Christian Science Monitor reports. The primary case involves a man identified only as MKB, a waiter in south Florida detained by INS and questioned by the FBI. Secrecy is anathema to democracy, period. If you’re not scared yet, read this:

MKB v. Warden is the first indication that the Justice Department is extending its total secrecy policy to proceedings in federal courts dealing with habeas corpus – that is, an individual’s right to force the government to justify his or her detention.

Until somebody shows me different, I continue to view John Ashcroft and his Department of “Justice” as a far bigger threat to American freedoms than Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden. Over two years after the towers fell, we’re still doing the terrorists’ work for them as we allow our freedoms to be dismantled in the name of “security.” Remember what Ben Franklin said about trading one for the other, right?

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety.