Do Current Anti-Terrorism Efforts in the United States Compromise Civil Liberties? Are the Compromises Necessary?

Three experts—Douglas W. Kmiec, Colleen Connell, and John E. Finn—offer their perspectives on whether civil liberties are being compromised, and whether we should be asking ourselves additional questions.

Download this section as a pdf.

Questions for Discussion

Do Current Anti-Terrorism Efforts in The United States Compromise Civil Liberties? Are the Compromises Necessary?

Download questions developed for each expert’s section and the response to the questions in pdf.

• Douglas W. Kmiec
• Colleen Connell
• John E. Finn

Perspectives Question for Discussion

Perspectives Questions for Discussion
Douglas W. Kmiec: Do Current Anti-Terrorism Efforts in The United States Compromise Civil Liberties? Are the Compromises Necessary?

1. What are this expert’s answers to the questions presented?
2. What does the New York Times reporting about the National Security Agency surveillance program demonstrate? Do you agree? Why?
3. Which public law authorized the president to use "necessary and proper steps" to subdue terrorists?
4. According to the expert, does presidential action need to be bolstered by law?
5. To what extent does the expert support or oppose established FISA court processes for most surveillance taps and searches?
6. What perplexing question does the expert raise about fighting terrorism? Why does he contend that it is important?
7. What do you think the expert means by the statement, "hard cases make bad law—and whether we like it or not, this is a hard case." Do you agree? Why?

Perspectives Questions for Discussion
Colleen Connell: Do Current Anti-Terrorism Efforts in The United States Compromise Civil Liberties? Are the Compromises Necessary?

1. What are this expert’s answers to the questions presented?
2. How, according to the expert, do the day-to-day activities we all undertake at work or for school make us vulnerable to government surveillance efforts? Do you agree? Why?
3. What are “extraordinary renditions”?
4. Why does the expert has criticized the government policy since 9/11 of barring the press and the public from immigration and deportation hearing?
5. Of all the charges made by the expert against the government, which do you think are the three most serious charges, and why?
6. Do you think that the expert makes a good case for her position that the Bush Administration has used the war on terror to expand the power of the Presidency while undermining the powers of Congress and the judiciary, and our rights as citizens? Why or why not? What information do you believe would help you to better evaluate her position?
7. What additional information, if any, might be useful to evaluate whether current policies are unnecessarily sacrificing civil liberties?

Perspectives Questions for Discussion
John E. Finn: Current Anti-Terrorism Efforts in The United States Compromise Civil Liberties? Are the Compromises Necessary?

1. What are this expert’s answers to the questions presented?
2. According to the expert, what kinds of information do we need to reach a position on whether anti terrorism efforts threaten civil liberties?
3. Why does the expert maintain we should care about whether anti-terrorism policies threaten civil liberties? Do you agree? Why? What other reasons can you think of to support the contention that we should care?
4. Under what circumstances does he argue civil liberties rank lower than other values? Explain his argument.
5. How does the author define “counterterrorism policy”? Is it a static definition? How so?
6. What are the most serious aspects of our current counterrorism policies, according to the expert? In other words, which aspects of the policies or “counterrorism regime” should give us all pause?
7. Do you agree with the expert that what we need to understand about the changes wrought by the most troublesome current counterterrorism policies is that they “strike at the very heart of the rule of law." Why?

Lesson

Lesson: What is War?

From Educators for Social Responsibility
This lesson asks students to consider human activity we define as war, activities that are warlike, and those that are neither by examining different definitions of war.

Resources

Resources to further explore topics and issues raised in the Perspectives section of the magazine.

Background on Counterterrorism
The Counterterrorism Blog
A multi expert blog devoted to counterterrorism.

Counterterrorism Policy
Resources linked from The Jurist

The Diplomacy of Counterterrorism: Lessons Learned, Ignored, and Disputed
Audrey Kurth Cronin (14 January 2002) Special Report No. 80
From The United States Institute of Peace

Background on Extraordinary Renditions
Outsourcing Torture: The Secret History Of America’s “Extraordinary Rendition” Program.
By Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, 2005-02-14

Extraordinary Rendition
By CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen