Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 16:29:29 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <200101112129.QAA14453@mattababy.mit.edu>
From: belmonte@mit.edu (Matthew Belmonte)
To: senator@kennedy.senate.gov
Subject: NO on Ashcroft

Dear Senator Kennedy

Please vote against the confirmation of John Ashcroft as Attorney General.
 
John Ashcroft was one of the most extreme and enthusiastic proponents in the    
Senate of the failed `war on drugs.'  John Ashcroft loves the cruel mandatory   
minimum sentences that have sent thousands of low-level, nonviolent drug
offenders to prison for years, even decades.
 
Ashcroft has sponsored legislation that would criminalize certain discussions   
on drug topics on the Internet and would allow police to conduct secret
searches of private homes, violating the spirit if not the letter of the 1st   
and 4th amendments to the Constitution.
 
He has shown a disregard for the problem of racial disparity in the criminal    
justice system, and used his chairmanship of the Subcommittee on the
Constitution to block legislation to study the problem of racial profiling.
 
The Attorney General has enormous power and influence over drug policy, and    
John Ashcroft is too much of an ideologue to be well-suited to the position.