The Hill News

The Ticking Bomb â€" How can society not do whatever it has to do to avoid a terrorist calamity? If we know a bomb is about to blow up the Empire State Building filled with innocent people, why read a suspect his Miranda rights? The Constitution isn’t a suicide pact, as Supreme Court justices have pointed out.

The Slippery Slope â€" Once we slough traditional values and standards, where do we stop? If the suspect refuses to confess after waterboarding, is it OK to torture his children to break his will? Why not, if the Ticking Bomb is about to go off? When do we stop, in the Slippery Slope situation?

Civil-liberties advocate Aryeh Neier argued in a recent Washington Post op-ed that the torture debate is pointless because neither side can prove its thesis. So it comes down to principles, and on principle he is against torture.

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