Un-American?

A recent attack ad put out by Keep America Safe, a conservative national security organization headed by Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, twists the very values it purports to defend.

The ad demands that Attorney General Eric Holder release the names of Department of Justice attorneys who have represented or advocated in the past on behalf of Guantanamo detainees, referring to the attorneys as “the al-Qaida 7,” and asking “Whose values do they share?” The implication is that they have terrorist sympathies.

In the American justice system, defendants have the right to representation. This is nonnegotiable — the nature of the crime has no bearing on this right. John Adams defended the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre. An attorney seeking to uphold this bedrock principle by defending an unpopular client is a reflection of our justice system’s highest ideals — not, as Cheney’s group maliciously suggests, a sign that we have traitors in our midst.

Several conservative lawyers, including former special prosecutor Ken Starr and former deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, have already signed a statement denouncing Keep America Safe’s ad, and they should be applauded for doing so. They’ve realized something Cheney and her ilk haven’t: The fundamental principles of the American justice system aren’t left-wing or right-wing — they’re American.

—  The Boston Globe