Abolish the Fifth Amendment.

• Author: Kaus, Mickey
• Position: Crime

This piece appeared in 1980.

Suppose you were suddenly arrested by the police and accused of 62 rapes. Would you stay silent? Of course not. You would clearly and emphatically tell the police they were wrong and offer whatever evidence you had that would confirm your story. There is an exception to this normal response, of course-one situation in which you would cling to the Fifth Amendment like a life preserver. That is if you were guilty.

This logic is inescapable, and it is the main problem with the Fifth Amendment. Other parts of the Bill of Rights-concerning free speech, freedom from unreasonable searches, the right to a jury trial, to name a few-are clearly designed to protect all citizens, guilty or innocent. But "the Fifth," almost by definition, protects only the guilty.

The Fifth Amendment isn't, and wasn't, in any way necessary to outlaw the Star Chamber abuses it is said to protect us against. If we want to ban torture-as surely we do-then we need a provision that bans torture, and perhaps sets severe penalties for any government official caught in the act. To prevent government probes into our political and religious associations, we need an...