Opinion: Ashcroft becomes what we feared

A Times Editorial

Ashcroft becomes what we feared

For at least six decades, the Justice Department has interpreted the Second Amendment's right to bear arms as pertaining to a state-organized militia.

Not anymore.

Attorney General John Ashcroft, long a friend to the National Rifle Association, has made a switch. Now the government claims in two briefs filed before the U.S. Supreme Court that the Second Amendment provides a far broader protection, granting individuals the right to firearms.

Regardless of the merits of this controversial policy change -- even some constitutional scholars disagree on the Second Amendment -- the about-face is another example of the way Ashcroft has allowed his personal beliefs to drive the department's interpretation of law and the Constitution -- something he swore during his confirmation proceedings he would not do.

During Ashcroft's January 2000 confirmation hearing, the former senator from Missouri was grilled by his former colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Many expressed serious reservations over Ashcroft's ability to divorce his personal beliefs from his role as objective law enforcement officer.

"I pledge to you that strict enforcement of the rule of law will be the cornerstone of justice," Ashcroft promised the committee. "As a man of faith, I take my word and my integrity seriously."

Since taking office, Ashcroft has gone back on his word time and again.

A prime example occurred last month when the U.S. Supreme Court found the Child Pornography Prevention Act unconstitutional because it prohibited virtual child pornography, material that does not involve the sexual exploitation of real children. Ashcroft was incensed at the court's ruling and has joined with members of Congress who vow to try again to criminalize the same material. Ashcroft's job is to respect the rule of law and the court's judgment on First Amendment protections, not to try to undo the justices' work.

This is just another skirmish in the culture war, a war Ashcroft has spent his professional life fighting. Now that he has the reins of an institution with a huge legal arsenal he has taken his attacks to a new level.

Ashcroft spent years before becoming attorney general railing against federal intrusions into "states' rights," but that didn't stop him from attempting to undermine Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law. Ashcroft reversed a standing policy of the Justice Department and told Oregon doctors who prescribe lethal drugs to patients in conformance with the state law that he would move to revoke their prescription-writing privileges. Only a federal ruling last month prevented Ashcroft from following through with his threats and freed Oregonians to exercise their rights under the statute.

The list of ways Ashcroft is using his office to further his personal beliefs is extensive. The actions range from his aggressive crackdown on medical marijuana in California, a state that has legalized the drug's use for that purpose, to his disregard for the rights of immigrants, the accused and the incarcerated. Ashcroft has allowed his personal beliefs to permeate the department's law enforcement actions. He has become the kind of ideological attorney general his critics warned us he would be.