Term Paper on "Civil Liberties Post 9-11"

Term Paper 7 pages (2131 words) Sources: 3

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Civil Liberties Post-September 11th

September 11th forever changed America and its views on their vulnerability to attacks from foreign entities. Not since Pearl Harbor had an act of war been conducted on American soil. Invisible boundaries that were once believed to keep one of the most powerful nations in the world secure had failed. Evil had entered and wreaked havoc, killing thousands of innocent and unsuspecting citizens and setting the nation on edge. The immediate response was fear, anger, and an unwavering solidarity to ensure that this sort of atrocity would not happen again. However, in an effort to protect America and its ways of life that are grounded in the pursuit of freedom, new policies meant to be tough on terror have seriously impinged on American citizens' civil liberties.

As Davis and Silver note, during ordinary times, for everyday citizens, civil liberties are likely to be only a remote concept, yet in certain situations, there are immediate implications for people's sense of freedom and well-being. Newly implemented measures, since September 11th, go beyond what critics feel is necessary to combat terrorism. Many of these restrictive measures are permanent. They apply to both citizens and non-citizens, and unlikely to be effective in the fight against terrorism. The ACLU notes that these threats to civil liberties fall into three broad categories: "secrecy, erosion of checks and balances, and circumventing long-standing personal privacy protections by muddying the important distinction between foreign intelligence gathering and criminal investigation" ("Threats to Civil Liberties").

Secrecy:

America was founded on certain basic principles. One of these was a government by and for the people. Stephen describes the cornerstone of government by the peoples as citizens "each have a meaningful vote and voice in how we function as a society, allocate our resources and resolve our inevitable conflicts." In this way, the founding fathers hoped to ensure a country that guaranteed the individual freedoms of its citizens. However, to be an effective government that is truly by the people, that government must be both transparent and accountable. The American public must be able to judge the effectiveness of the leaders that they've placed into office, and the correctness of their actions ("Threats to Civil Liberties"). Government actions following September 11th have been in complete conflict with this concept.

Instead of a government open to inspection by its citizens, following September 11th, American government has become more secretive. This is worrisome, according to the ACLU, because it is only through public examination, and the resultant debates that follow, that America can choose the best course of action for the country. There is a difference between matters of national and military security that must be kept secret, such as troop movements, however "the Bush Administration has unilaterally gone far beyond this level of secrecy and has entered policy territory far outside the appropriate level of secrecy for American governance" ("Threats to Civil Liberties").

One of the most important areas of secrecy that the government has maintained is critical information regarding the 500-plus detainees currently being held in federal prisons. Requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act and a lawsuit filed in federal court, has not resulted in an allayment of fears of the violations of civil liberties. According to the ACLU, many of the prisoners are being held on charges that are unrelated to the attack on September 11th. A policy of tighter restrictions of releases of other information, via the Freedom of Information Act, in general has also heightened secrecy ("Threats to Civil Liberties").

Legislation passed over the course of the last five years has given governmental approval to increased levels of secrecy. The use of 'black bag' or 'sneak and peek' searches by law enforcement, all in the name of anti-terrorism, has increased (Stephens). With these newly granted powers, law enforcement is not even required to notify the person whose residence or property is being searched until much later, if at all ("Threats to Civil Liberties").

Clearly this is a violation of liberties protected by the Fourth Amendment Right to be Free from Unreasonable Search and Seizure (Stephens), held dear to American society. In a post-September 11th poll regarding the conflicting desires of security vs. civil liberties, only 23% of respondents indicated that they would be willing to forego their civil liberties and approve of warrantless searches on suspicion only, in exchange for greater security (Davis & Silver).

The passage of the U.S.A. Patriot Act was perhaps the most abhorrent violation of civil liberties, further increasing the government's ability to operate in secrecy. As the ACLU notes, prior to the Patriot Act, "several privacy statutes required that the government notify Americans when it collected private information, including credit reports, student records, financial information and other personal data" ("Threats to Civil Liberties"). Currently, the recently renewed Patriot Act gives law enforcement and the intelligence community the ability to collect sensitive, personal information, in secrecy. Stephens reiterates the ACLU's opinion on these atrocities.

In swift succession, government security and intelligence agents have been granted broad powers to spy lawfully on citizens and others in this country, without evidence of any crime, to keep previously public information and legal proceedings secret, to engage in ethnic profiling, including indefinite detention without criminal charges, to conduct secret searches and wiretaps without probable cause, to monitor people's internet and library use, and to collect personal records.

A trade-off between liberty and security is inherent in the task of combating terrorism, and it is, in fact, a statement of politically tolerable risk" (Lewis). Yet, there becomes a point when the cost paid in liberties is not justified by the relatively small increase in security.

Erosion of Basic Checks and Balances:

In addition to an increased level of secrecy, post September 11th, infringing on citizens' civil liberties, there has also been an erosion of the basic checks and balances that are inherent to a democratic government. Separation of powers in the United States was created to safeguard against the imposition of the will of the majority on that of the minority. However, since September 11th, this separation has weakened, with the executive branch of the government garnering more power than it should ("Threats to Civil Liberties"). Immediately following the attacks on September 11th, both the government and the public agreed, for the first time, that terrorism was a critical issue that government needed to address (Lewis). Yet, in no way did the American public condone the basic dismantling of the checks and balances system that has been the background of the government.

Anti-terrorism legislation has taken away much of the judiciary branches' ability to review the actions of the executive branch. "Immigration judges have far less ability to prevent the unlawful detention or deportation of non-citizens. The legal standards for granting law enforcement search and seizure warrants have, in many cases, been reduced significantly. Wiretapping and surveillance powers have been greatly expanded and judicial review of these actions reduced" ("Threats to Civil Liberties").

The right of a jury trial, with a civilian judge and a unanimous verdict has been taken away from defendants being held as suspected terrorists, with the implementation of military tribunals in place of the criminal justice system.

With the continued existence of the Patriot Act, as well as other response by the Administration, the judicial court system has been treated as more of an obstacle to the executive branch's actions than the protection of civil rights that it was established to be. The judicial system protects the public by ensuring that fair processes and procedures are utilized to make certain that only the guilty are convicted. By circumventing this system, not only are innocent people in danger, but the dangers to the general public are increased because actual terrorists may still be at large ("Threats to Civil Liberties").

It is not the concept of keeping America safe that is clashing with civil liberties, but, instead the government's methods of obtaining that security (Davis and Silver).

Privacy:

The last major threat to civil liberties, since the advent of September 11th, is the reduction of privacy in America. Privacy is one of the most valued of civil liberties for Americans. When asked if they'd be willing to allow the monitoring o telephone and e-mail conversations as a means of increasing national security against terrorism, only 34% of respondents were willing to give up this civil liberty (Davis & Silver). The ACLU clearly points out that the blurring of the lines between traditional separation of criminal investigation and intelligence gathering has seriously eroded the public's right to privacy.

This is a backwards leap from the progress the country has made over the last four to five decades, when the FBI used programs such as COINTELPRO to harass civil rights leaders and anti-war groups ("Threats to Civil Liberties").

As a result of these abuses by the FBI, the three branches of government worked diligently to separate law enforcement from foreign intelligence gathering. However, following September 11th and the anti-terrorism efforts, much of this separation… READ MORE

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