Of course, once people have been subjected to such thoroughgoing government surveillance, all relations between the government and the public are transformed. Whether the rulers be revolutionary despots or democratically elected officials, every citizen knows that "they" know all about him and his affairs, and hence no one dares to step out of line. In such a situation, the socio-political system will gravitate ineluctably toward totalitarianism.
Robert Higgs, author of Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government (Oxford University Press), is a senior fellow in political economy at the Independent Institute and editor of the institute's quarterly journal, The Independent Review.
Bye-Bye, Bill of Rights
David Kopel
In the short run, Fourth and Fifth Amendment liberties face the greatest perils. While Attorney General John Ashcroft has performed very well on many fronts, in his relationship with the FBI he is, unfortunately, following in the footsteps of the attorneys general from the Clinton and the first Bush administrations. He's doing nothing to restrain the FBI's ever-escalating demands for the creation of a surveillance state.
Over the longer course of war, almost every part of the Bill of Rights will come under assault. Centralizers will attempt to further undermine the Tenth Amendment. Already, the gun prohibition lobbies are claiming that gun shows must be destroyed in order to fight terrorism. Note, by the way, that the McCain-Lieberman gun show bill before Congress is not just about background checks on some gun show sales. The McCain-Lieberman bill has so many sweeping restrictions, the violation of any one of which is a felony, that it would be legally reckless for anyone to operate any gun show if McCain-Lieberman were law. The issue really isn't background checks, but whether gun shows should continue to exist.
Besides threats to particular liberties, friends of traditional American values -- namely freedom, privacy, and justice -- should keep their eyes on two transcendent issues during wartime. First, the effort to replace our checks and balances and our system of federalism with unreviewable central executive power. Second, the tendency of people to suppress their own willingness to think freely, and to lash out at those who do not similarly self-suppress. r
David Kopel is research director of the Independence Institute, in Golden, Colorado.
Farewell to Anonymity
Declan McCullagh
So far, politicians are targeting privacy and anonymity. National I.D. cards are being taken far too seriously. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison told a San Francisco TV station: "We need a national ID card with our photograph and thumbprint digitized and embedded in the ID card." Perhaps eyeing a lucrative support contract, Ellison volunteered to provide the software "absolutely free."
The likely result: Cops arresting any American who refuses to show a surveillance-enabled I.D. on demand. (Previously the concept arose, in less dramatic form, when anti-immigration zealots in Congress unsuccessfully tried to encode fingerprints, Social Security numbers, and other personal information into everyone's driver's license.)
That's not the only retread of a bad idea from the 1990s. In a floor speech, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) called for a global ban on privacy-protective encryption products that don't have "back doors" that would allow government surveillance. Gregg plans to introduce a bill in October. No word yet on how those crypto-mavens in the U.S. Congress plan to convince Osama bin Laden and company to use FBI-certified spyware.
Another item on the FBI wish list is about to come true: The Senate has already approved a bill -- by a 97�0 vote -- that lets police conduct some forms of Internet surveillance without a court order.
The outlook isn't entirely bleak. Liberty has found some surprising, if uncertain, champions in the Congress. We should be heartened that members of both major parties are starting to ask for more time to weigh these proposals. The Bush folks had said, generously, that three days would be more than enough. r
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