The homeland security mania has invited some startling abuses of police power, but we have yet to hear of any more knuckle-headed than one in Maryland. There, the State Police are sheepishly tracking down 53 innocent people to let them know they were entered as suspected terrorists on state and federal databases  for the Orwellian offense of engaging in peaceful protest.

The citizens had merely joined gatherings opposed to the Iraq war and capital punishment. Yet they were listed as terrorists three years ago on criminal intelligence rolls. “On the contrary, the groups were determined not to violate the law,” Stephen Sachs, the former Maryland attorney general, took pains to point out in a blistering report concluding that the runaway program violated constitutional rights and federal regulations.

Legislative hearings this week added insult to injury. Thomas Hutchins, a former State Police superintendent, insisted that the program was a legitimate surveillance of “fringe people” he somehow divined as “those who wish to disrupt the government.” This is a chilling free-speech distinction not found in the Constitution. It should make any American wonder what else is out there in the way of misbegotten police programs.

The 300 hours of surveillance devoted to data-smearing outspoken citizens was aptly described in the report as “an instructive example of the abuses that can result when the mere invocation of ‘terrorism’ is understood to override constitutional protections.”