John Ashcroft - Political Issues

Political Issues

Ashcroft's policy positions on privacy and civil liberties issues generally pleased conservatives while some left-leaning political opponents engaged in criticisms. Some of his critics included the American Civil Liberties Union and pro-choice groups. Examples of criticisms of policies by political opponents included:

In July 2002, Ashcroft proposed the creation of Operation TIPS, a domestic program in which workers and government employees would inform law enforcement agencies about suspicious behavior they encounter while performing their duties. The program was criticized in the media as an encroachment upon the First and Fourth Amendments, and the United States Postal Service balked at the program, refusing outright to participate. Ashcroft defended the program as a necessary component of the ongoing War on Terrorism, but the proposal was eventually abandoned.

Ashcroft was responsible for proposing a draft of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, legislation which proposed to greatly expand the powers of the U.S. government to fight crime and terrorism, while simultaneously eliminating or curtailing judicial review of these powers for incidents involving domestic terrorism. The bill was leaked and posted to the Internet on February 7, 2003.

On May 26, 2004, Ashcroft held a news conference at which he said that intelligence from multiple sources indicated that al Qaeda intended to attack the United States in the coming months. Critics said this was an attempt to distract attention from a drop in the approval ratings of President Bush, who was campaigning for re-election.

However, groups supporting the civil liberties protected by the Second Amendment lauded Ashcroft's Justice Department support for the Second Amendment. He said specifically, "the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep and bear arms," thus embracing the position that the second amendment expresses an individual, not collective, right. At the time NRA president Sandra Froman said, "When these Bush Administration officials affirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual right, the enemies of freedom were outraged because they fear the Second Amendment for what it really is– a shield against oppression."

In 2009 a federal court of appeals in San Francisco found that Ashcroft could be sued and held personally responsible for the wrongful detention of material witness Abdullah al-Kidd – an American citizen arrested in March 2003 and held for 13 months in maximum security to be used as a witness in the trial of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen (who himself was acquitted of all charges of supporting terrorism). The panels court called the government's assertions "repugnant of the Constitution". The Supreme Court agreed on October 18, 2010 to consider whether Ashcroft could be sued. In a detailed and at times passionate opinion, Judge Milan Smith likened Mr. al-Kidd's allegation to the repressive practices of the British crown that sparked the American Revolution. The government asserts it can detain American citizens "not because there is evidence that they have committed a crime, but merely because the government wishes to investigate them for possible wrongdoing," wrote Judge Smith, an appointee of former President George W. Bush. He called it "a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history." Abdullah Al-Kidd was held in especially harsh conditions during the first 16 days of his imprisonment. Mr. Al-Kidd was born on 1973 in Wichita, Kansas and converted to Islam. He asserts that Mr. Ashcroft violated his civil liberties as an American citizen. Mr. al-Kidd's lawyers say the then-attorney general encouraged authorities after 9/11 to arrest potential suspects as material witnesses when they lacked probable cause to believe the suspects had committed a crime.

On May 31, 2011, the Supreme Court threw out the lawsuit against Ashcroft regarding Abdullah al-Kidd.

In January 2002, the partially nude female statue of the Spirit of Justice, which stands in the Great Hall of the Justice Department, where Ashcroft held press conferences, was covered with blue curtains, along with its male counterpart, the Majesty of Law. Some speculated that Ashcroft felt reporters were photographing him with the female statue in the background to make fun of his church's opposition to pornography. A Justice Department spokeswoman said that Ashcroft knew nothing of the decision to spend $8,000 for the curtains; a spokesman said the decision for permanent curtains was intended to save on the $2,000 per use rental costs of temporary curtains used for formal events.

Ashcroft has been a proponent of the War on Drugs. In a 2001 interview on Larry King Live, Ashcroft announced his intent to escalate efforts in this area. In 2003, Ashcroft and the acting DEA Administrator, John B. Brown, announced a series of indictments resulting from two nationwide investigations code-named Operation Pipe Dream and Operation Headhunter. The investigations targeted businesses selling drug paraphernalia, mostly marijuana pipes and bongs, under a little-used statute (Title 21, Section 863(a) of the U.S. Code). Counterculture icon Tommy Chong was one of those charged, for his part in financing and promoting Chong Glass/Nice Dreams, a company started by his son Paris. Of the 55 individuals charged as a result of the operations, only Chong was given a prison sentence (nine months in a federal prison, plus forfeiting $103,000 and a year of probation). The other 54 individuals were given fines and home detentions. While the DOJ denied that Chong was treated any differently from the other defendants, many felt that he was made an example of by the government. Chong's experience as a target of Ashcroft's sting operation is the subject of Josh Gilbert's feature length documentary a/k/a Tommy Chong, which premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.

When Karl Rove was being questioned by the FBI over the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity in the press, Ashcroft was allegedly briefed about the investigation. Democratic U.S. Representative John Conyers described this as a "stunning ethical breach that cries out for an immediate investigation." Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter asking for a formal investigation of the time between the start of Rove's investigation and John Ashcroft's recusal.

Ashcroft has also fought strongly against physician-aid-in-dying. When interviewed about it, he stated, “I certainly believe that people who are in pain should be helped and assisted in every way possible, that the drugs should be used to mitigate their pain but I believe the law of the United States of America which requires that drugs not be used except for legitimate health purposes.”