In the early twenty-first century, global conflicts and devastating terrorist acts created a widespread fear of violence on U.S. soil. As the U.S.
government took steps to protect its citizens, some attempts at civil defense (emergency measures enacted in the event of natural disaster or
enemy attack) threatened many of the fundamental freedoms that
Americans cherish—their civil liberties. Civil liberties are individual
rights that are protected by laws and by the U.S. Constitution and its
amendments. Such rights include freedom of speech and religion and the
right to privacy and a fair trial.
Throughout U.S. history, the government has frequently made efforts to restrict civil liberties during wars and other crises. These efforts
have involved wiretapping (listening to people’s phone calls or reading their e-mail) and other invasions of privacy; suspending the rights of
prisoners; racial profiling (when law enforcement authorities use characteristics based on race to decide whether an individual might be guilty of
some crime and therefore worthy of investigation or arrest); and even
prohibiting public criticism of the government. The U.S. Constitution
makes no formal provision for restricting civil liberties in emergencies,
but during crisis situations judges, legislators, and presidents have gone
along with suspending certain rights normally taken for granted. Striking
a balance between civil liberties and civil defense in times of danger has
often been a challenge.
Historical background
The earliest instance of suspension of civil liberties in times of national
threat occurred soon after the founding of the nation with the Alien and
Sedition Acts of 1798. At the time, the United States seemed on the verge
of war with France. The three “Alien” acts gave the president the power to
deport suspected aliens, or people from other countries, and restricted the
voting rights of immigrants. The Sedition Act targeted all speeches and
writings that were believed to be critical of, or “against,” the government
of the United States. The four acts taken together gave the president broad
powers to seek out and suppress anyone, American or not, who expressed
views critical of the government’s policies. The acts became very unpopular and they were allowed to expire within a few years.
Wartime suspensions of civil liberties
President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865; served 1861–65) initiated a
widespread suspension of civil liberties in an effort to maintain order
during the American Civil War (1861–65). His orders included censoring the mail, imposing martial law (military rule of civilians during an
emergency), and suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus—
the procedure by which individuals who have been imprisoned can request a court inquiry into whether they are being detained for legitimate
reasons.
The United States’s involvement in World War I (1914–18) provoked serious and widespread abuses of civil liberties. In 1917, Congress
passed the much-debated Espionage Act, which made it a crime to make
false reports that might aid an enemy, incite rebellion within the armed
forces, or obstruct military recruitment. One of its provisions covered the use of the nation’s post office system. Any newspaper, pamphlet,
book, letter, or other writing advocating insurrection or the forcible resistance to any U.S. law would be punishable by both fine and imprisonment. The provisions concerning the nation’s mail gave the
government an opportunity to suppress dissent of almost every kind.
Many well-known Americans who criticized the act were imprisoned
under its powers. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Espionage
Act, saying that when a condition of national emergency arises, protections afforded by the First Amendment could be legitimately curtailed
if it was in the interest of national security.
The most dramatic suspension of civil liberties of World War II
(1939–45) took place at Japanese internment camps. Over one hundred thousand Japanese Americans were forced into confinement in the
aftermath of the Japanese attack on the U.S. Navy base in Hawaii at
Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The internment of Japanese
Americans without any evidence of their connection to the Japanese war
effort, forcing them to leave their homes and businesses to live in remote
camps under guard, received the support of all three branches of the federal government. Many years later, in 1988,
President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; served
1981–89) made a formal apology to the surviving Japanese Americans who had been interned;
the U.S. government paid nearly $1.65 billion
in reparations to former internees.
Red scares
After the Russian Revolution in 1917, an overwhelming fear of radicalism gripped the United
States, even though there were few communists
in the country at that time. Communism is an
economic or political system in which property
is owned collectively by all members of society
and labor is organized for the common good. In
1919, the federal government launched nationwide raids to round up and detain alleged communist radicals the government believed were
plotting to destroy the United States. U.S. attorney general A. Mitchell Palmer (1872–1936) led this crusade, championing the “100 percent Americanism” philosophy.
At the height of this period, known as the Red Scare of 1920, the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nongovernmental organization devoted to defending civil rights and civil liberties in the United
States, was founded. By the end of 1920, many Americans realized that
warnings of a communist threat had been greatly exaggerated.
Following World War II, the fear of communism grew in the United
States along with the developing Cold War. This was a period of noncombative conflict, from the 1940s to the 1990s, between the communist East (the U.S.S.R. and the People’s Republic of China) and the
capitalist West (the United States and Western Europe). In 1950, littleknown U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy (1908–1957) of Wisconsin suddenly announced that he had “proof” of widespread communist activity
in the U.S. government, though he never provided any documentation
of this claim. That year, Congress passed the McCarran Internal Security
Act, virtually outlawing communism in the United States. This was followed in 1954 with the Communist Control Act, forbidding communists from running for political office. Both laws were clearly in violation
of the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of association, but the
U.S. Supreme Court went along with them anyway. By 1954, blacklists
(lists of people who are in trouble or are being denied entrance or privileges) were in place in the fields of education and entertainment (see
Hollywood Blacklisting); hundreds lost their jobs simply because they
dared to question the U.S. government.