Can you imagine an America in which you could lose all liberty – from the presumption of innocence to the right to counsel to fairness from the government to a jury trial – simply because the president says you are dangerous?

Last week, while our minds were on family and turkey and football, the Senate Armed Services Committee decided to meet in secret. So, behind closed doors, it drafted an amendment to a bill appropriating money for the Pentagon. The amendment would permit the president to use the military for law enforcement purposes in the United States. This, of course, would present a radical departure from any use to which the military has been put in the memory of any Americans now living.-Can Congress Steal Your Constitutional Freedoms?