House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md., LAW ’66) said that the United States must carefully balance civil liberties with national security during a speech Tuesday at the Law Center.

The 14-term congressman said the need to keep the country secure can be achieved without sacrificing civil liberties.

“Our basic duties as members of Congress – protecting the American people, while protecting the values that define us as Americans – are not mutually exclusive,” Hoyer said in front of a crowd of approximately 200. “Indeed, they can be, and must be, mutually reinforcing.”

Hoyer said the U.S. must remain true to its core values even in the face of grave threats to national security.

“We will – and we must – prevail in the war on terror,” he said. “However, in the pursuit of those who seek to harm us, we must not sacrifice the very ideals that distinguish us from those who preach death and destruction, and the very ideals that will allow us to ultimately prevail over violent jihadism.”

Hoyer said the Bush administration has overstepped its authority and impeded on civil liberties on numerous occasions in recent years, including permitting the Federal Bureau of Investigation access to a suspect’s phone, Internet, credit card and bank records without court approval, allowing detainees to be held at Guantanamo Bay by suspending the writ of habeas corpus and allowing Central Intelligence Agency agents to use severe physical and psychological tactics in interrogations.

Hoyer expressed his support for the RESTORE Act, a House bill that was introduced earlier this month that would amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 by providing that court order not be required for collection of certain foreign intelligence information. Hoyer said the bill would allow the federal government to enhance surveillance procedures legally while putting in place a system of checks and balances.

“The bill provides the tools to protect Americans and reflects an understanding of the most basic concepts in our constitutional form of government: the proposition that we, indeed, are a nation of laws, and that our founders deliberately designed our three branches to serve as a check and balance on each other,” he said.

When asked during the question-and-answer period following his speech why the United States should afford rights of due process to members of terrorist organizations, Hoyer said that the presumption of innocence must be maintained.

“How do you know that the people in Guantanamo are people that would cut off our heads? You know because someone told you, you don’t know because there was a court disposition of the case based upon the evidence that was produced, and that is our system,” he said. “The majority of America, when the police arrest somebody, usually assume that [that] person is guilty. Why? Because you believe, correctly in most cases, that the police are operating fairly and have evidence to prove it. I will tell you as a lawyer, you’re going to try cases in which you will find the jury will come back and say `not guilty,’ and that’s because they’re not guilty. The state makes mistakes.”

The speech was part of the Georgetown Law Forum, an ongoing speaker series sponsored by the Law Center.