As the guest of honor at the Law Day luncheon at the Emporia Country Club, Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six urged those in the legal system to preserve the rule of law, even as the new threat of terrorism makes Constitutional principles unpopular to some.
Speaking before around 45 people Thursday as part of the Lyon-Chase County Bar Association’s Law Day observance, Six drew a parallel between the threat of Communism five decades ago and the threat of terrorism today. He said he was confident, “notwithstanding some of the policies that I think have gone on in Washington,” that the current generation will work to preserve and extend liberty in the United States.
Early in his speech, Six made reference to the “whirlwind” of timing and circumstances that made him Kansas’ top crimefighter back in January, following the sex scandal that forced Paul Morrison to resign. Six said he was “quite happy” working as a district judge in Douglas County up to that point, but “one thing led to another, and pretty soon I was in Topeka doing that job.”
When he turned his attention to preserving the law, Six said he recently had a chance to read comments former President Harry Truman made to new attorneys in Kansas City 50 years ago. At that time, with Communism seen as a threat to the United States, Truman told the attorneys to appreciate and understand the Constitution and the rule of law. He quoted Truman as saying, “The external threat to liberty should not drive us into suppressing liberty at home,” because to use Communist methods to defeat Communism would be a moral disaster, and “the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence would be utterly dead.”
Six said Truman’s remarks still ring true.
“Though the threat today is not Communism, the one that Truman faced — it’s terrorism — but the principles of the Constitution, notwithstanding the threats we faced, always must be defended,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not popular to defend them, but the people that need to defend them are the people here in this room — of course, the attorneys and the judges and the bar associations.”
One of the issues Six said was a reminder of how important the rule of law is was the prosecution of terrorism suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay. Air Force Col. Morris Davis, the chief military prosecutor of the military tribunals at Guantanamo, resigned late last year and recently made remarks about why he stepped down: he believed that fair trials in the military tribunals at Guantanamo were not possible.
“Col. Davis has testified on the record that in order to stand up for the principle of the rule of law, he had to resign, because political pressures were being exerted on him as a prosecutor,” Six said. “They appointed and created a military tribunal, but according to Col. Davis, the political appointees didn’t allow the military and the Department of Defense to run it. It was set up, and pressure was placed on him by the appointees to come and focus on outcomes of the trial, not on justice.”
Six said the rule of law wasn’t just “something that happened in the old days.” He said he knew the legal system could do better in preserving it and bringing justice that the world would accept.
Six also talked about several pressing issues being dealt with in the attorney general’s office, including the state’s suit against Nebraska for alleged violation of the 1943 Republican River Compact. Nebraska is accused of taking more water from the Republican River than the six-decade-old agreement allows it. Six said he thought the attorney general’s offense would be successful in the suit.
“No water case has ever gotten to this point, where a state has completely ignored what the Supreme Court told them to do,” he said.
After Six finished his remarks, Lyon County District Court Chief Judge Merlin Wheeler capped the event by presenting this year’s Liberty Bell award to Ken Buchele, president of the Emporia Community Foundation. The Liberty Bell award is given each year to someone who embodies the spirit and principles of the rule of law.
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