Guarding the Home Front

Will civil liberties be a casualty in the War on Terrorism?

From the December 2001 issue

(Page 6 of 6)

There are three areas in which civil liberties are most vulnerable. One is in the area of domestic surveillance. One change that has a good chance of occurring is the monitoring of individuals on the basis of something other than probable cause. I also expect that there will be an attempt to give the Department of Justice the authority to monitor individuals even without a court order under circumstances that Justice, in its wisdom, deems appropriate. I think the DOJ will take advantage of the current crisis to not only get authority to monitor different kinds of communications modalities, such as the Internet, but also to lower the relatively strict standards that govern wiretapping.

The probable increase in racial and ethnic profiling of tan-skinned people and the maintenance of a different set of standards for them as opposed to "Americans" is also very worrisome. When an unwise rule is applied only to a disfavored or minority group, there is no substantial social pressure to get that bad rule repealed. It's only when that rule is applied to all of us that really horrendous rules get repealed.

I am also concerned about moving into an atmosphere where there will be coercive displays of patriotism required of citizens in order for them to avoid various kinds of discrimination -- or even violence and threats of violence. r

Harvey A. Silverglate is co-author of The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on American College Campuses (Free Press).

Less Freedom, Less Safety

Nadine Strossen

My greatest fear is that too many members of the public will embrace the government's call to give up some freedom in return for greater safety, only to find that they have lost freedom without gaining safety. That is the lesson of every recent actual or metaphorical war.

In the Gulf War, we saw unprecedented restrictions on freedom of the press. Subsequent studies showed that the restrictions were not justified by any actual security concerns, but rather were designed largely to shield our government from criticism. Still, efforts are now under way to impose even greater restrictions on media coverage in the current crisis.

In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, our government has been exercising pervasive surveillance over millions of innocent communications, through dragnet systems including record-breaking numbers of wiretaps, the Carnivore program for intercepting all communications that pass through certain Internet service providers, and the Echelon global electronic surveillance system. Nonetheless, the Justice Department continues to seek even more expansive surveillance powers, which would sweep in even more innocent communications, with even less judicial oversight.

In the War on Drugs, many rights-curtailing measures fall disproportionately on members of racial minorities who fit stereotypical "profiles." Likewise, in the stepped-up "War on Terrorism," the most endangered rights will probably be those of ethnic and religious minorities who are targeted not because of individualized suspicion, but only because of stereotypes. The most beleaguered are likely to be Arabic or Islamic individuals who are not American citizens.

Nadine Strossen, a professor at New York Law School, is president of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Nowhere to Hide

Paul M. Weyrich

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution is the most at risk. The government will challenge our right to be shielded from unreasonable search and seizure by trying to obtain the keys to our encrypted communications. That way, at will and without a warrant, they will be able to read our e-mail and other documents.

Ah, you say, I have nothing to hide, so why do I care? In this era of political correctness where the ordinary practices of today become the crimes of tomorrow, it is dangerous to have that view. Perhaps you may want to trust the government to have access to your innermost views. But what do you suppose will happen when you determine that the government has become too repressive and it must be replaced? What do you suppose will happen to you when governmental officials find out your views before you have had a chance to act upon them?

Paul M. Weyrich is president of the Washington, D.C.-based Free Congress Research and Education Foundation.