American Civil Liberties

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Recommended: Challenges of civil liberties in the us throughout the twentieth and twenty first centuries

Terrorists attacks in America should not reduce or take away civil liberties because it unnecessarily increases government power, gives a false state of security, and goes against the concepts of liberty on which the United States was founded. In order to understand why these three things are important we must determine what are civil liberties.

According to Wikipedia, “Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that protect an individual from the state” (Wikipedia, 2010). Why would we need protection from the state? The intent of civil liberties is to “set limits on the government so that its agents cannot abuse their power and interfere unduly with the lives of private citizens” (Wikipedia, 2010). Civil liberties are protected through the Bill of Rights. The Declaration of Independence declares a strong human rights statement with “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” With so many documents about liberty and rights it’s hard to imagine those rights being abused or taken away by the government who is supposed to protect those rights.

In September 2001, the United States fell prey to terrorist attacks that resulted in loss of property, loss of lives, and loss or reduction of what many belief to be basic rights and liberties. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), as a result of the terrorist attacks on 9-11, the Bush administration began a serious attack on civil liberties. The ACLU argues that the government has abused its power through “Warrant-less wiretapping, torture, kidnapping, and detention, the growing surveillance society, abuse...

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Wikipedia. (2010, July 23). Civil Liberties. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_liberties

Wikipedia. (2010, July 26). Terrorism. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism

Bovard, James. (2010, June 4). The Folly of Blindly Trusting the Government. Retrieved from http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd1003c.asp

American Civil Liberties Union. (2006, September 6). Top Ten Abuses of Power Since 9/11. Retrieved from www.aclu.org/keep-america-safe-free/top-ten-abuses-power-911

Greenwald, Glen. (2010, May 13). New Target of Rights Erosions: U.S. Citizens. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/05/13/citizens

Marshall, Thurgood. (1990, March). The Supreme Court and Civil Rights: Has the Tide Turned? Reprinted with permission, from USA Today, March 1990. From the book Civil Liberties: Opposing viewpoints. (p. 208)

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