Liberty in law

Liberty in law
Preserving our constitutional rights is a victory against terrorism

October 25, 2001

Most of us are not terrorists. Most of us are not even criminals. That’s the biggest problem with the anti-terrorism bill, which removes our awareness of, and so our legal defense against, such procedures as tapping our phones, reading our correspondence and searching our homes. That appears to be contrary to our constitutional protection against unlawful search and seizure.

Unfortunately, the real enemy isn’t the U.S. Congress and the federal intelligence and law-enforcement officials who believe broader powers are necessary to fight terrorism. The Bill of Rights wasn’t written to protect us against enemies who are trying to kill Americans, with planes, with germs and possibly even with nuclear weapons. National security must take precedence, at least in the sense that our civil rights will be irrelevant if we’re dead or no longer living in a democracy.

The challenge, then, becomes balancing the threat to our lives against the threat to our way of life. The same troubling question applies to our "homeland security" efforts as to our military efforts: How will we know when we’ve won? Will we ever be able to regain our rights, or will the terrorists have succeeded in restricting our freedoms?

It’s essential that any domestic restrictions must have a clearly defined sunset provision, either in terms of a time limit or related to achievable objectives. We may never feel as secure as we once did, although that security was always illusory. We won't ever eliminate all those who wish us ill. The only victory we can hope to achieve is a declaration that despite their best efforts, we will continue to live as Americans, enjoying rights that have been earned through democracy and that cannot be snatched away by fear-mongers.

We can’t ever go back, but it’s vitally important to be able to look forward to a time when we declare ourselves in possession of our own rights once more. A military officer last weekend wryly noted that at this time two months ago, conservatives had been defending their right to keep and bear arms; now we’re defending our country overseas and our right to keep and bear nail clippers at home. Such humorous comments disguise a sense of real loss. We don’t feel safe any more, but the terrorists actually present a far greater threat to our freedom than to our personal safety.

Freedom is a nebulous concept, and many of us never really take advantage of the rights we have. That abstraction is, in itself, a tremendous gift in a world where many people must seek and defend their civil rights in practice every day. We’ve taken our rights for granted for so long that we may not realize what we risk losing.

Right now the willingness to do whatever is necessary is an inspiring demonstration of the American spirit. But if we allow the restrictions on our constitutional rights to extend past the point at which they really are helping in this fight — if we allow them to become standard practice just because enemies exist who some day, somewhere, might challenge us — we’ve allowed the spirit of America to shrivel slightly.