Civil Liberties Online
Beyond the Patriot Act: Cases and Laws Outside of the Scope of the PATRIOT Act That Nonetheless Raise Civil Liberties Issues
Civil liberties are being affected by legal developments quite separate from the changes brought about by the USA PATRIOT Act. A case might be made, in fact, that non-PATRIOT based actions have a greater potential to impact civil liberties. The President’s decision to establish military commissions to try terrorists and the following government actions: overzealous prosecution and investigation in the aftermath of September 11, denial of media access to immigration hearings, detention of material witnesses in grand jury proceedings, detention of American citizens designated as enemy combatants, and detention of foreign nationals at Guantanamo Naval Station- all these actions did not rely on upon the Patriot Act authorities in any way. See Christopher Schroeder, Will the Sun Set on the Patriot Act?, Duke Law Magazine, 2005, at 27. Accordingly, this project will be monitoring non-PATRIOT related legal developments as well. See Beryl A. Howell, Perspectives on the USA PATRIOT Act: Surveillance Powers in the USA PATRIOT Act: How Scary are They?, 76 PA Bar Assn. Quarterly 12 (2005) (emphasizing that certain government actions were not authorized by the PATRIOT Act itself, such as practices toward those detained post-September 11th, but have been linked, perhaps incorrectly, to its line of authority). See Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Assessing the New Normal: Liberty and Security for the Post-September 11 United States (2003), at http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/pubs/descriptions/Assessing/AssessingtheNewNormal.pdf (surveying the range of post 9/11 developments that raise civil liberties concerns).
