July 19, 1995
Washington, DC, July 19, 1995 -- "Even as these Subcommittees begin to review the tragic
debacle at Waco, ironically both Houses of Congress are considering measures to expand still further
the powers of the very federal agencies responsible for that and other disasters. Those measures
would bring about dramatic increases in the unchecked power, authority, and role of federal officials
in everyday American life," according to National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
(NACDL) President Gerald H. Goldstein.
In testimony today to the House Crime and Criminal Justice Subcommittees on the first day
of hearings to examine the tragic 1993 events at the Branch Dividian compound near Waco, Texas,
Goldstein attacked political leaders of both parties for hypocrisy in condemning law enforcement
abuses at Waco while at the same time pushing new measures to expand the powers of federal law
enforcement agents and weaken civil liberties.
Among the measures to which Goldstein referred are pending proposals to (1) abolish or
severely curtail the exclusionary rule, the only effective means of enforcing the Fourth Amendment's
ban on unreasonable government intrusions into citizens' lives; (2) exempt federal prosecutors from
state ethical rules that have applied to all lawyers since our nation's founding; and (3) curtail Fifth
Amendment protections against coercive police interrogations.
"The[se measures] are inconsistent with the concept of limiting the power of the federal
government otherwise advanced by these same political leaders and are contrary to the principles
of limited government upon which this nation was founded. . . . This is not the time to loosen the
constitutional reins on federal law enforcement or scale back protection of citizens' individual and
property rights," Goldstein warned.
"Some of those who today express concern about federal law enforcement tactics in Waco
are the sponsors and supporters of pending proposals to emasculate and even eliminate the very
safeguards that provide our citizenry protection against such governmental abuses. Election-day
rhetoric has given many citizens the misconception that "liberal courts" using "technicalities"
regularly loose criminals to prey upon innocent citizens. It is rarely mentioned that among these
"technicalities" are the first ten amendments to our constitutional bulwark that separates us from
those totalitarian states we so regularly denounce," Goldstein reminded subcommittee members.
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National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)