Civil Liberties & Privacy

The First Amendment Needs a Rape Kit

by Wendy McElroy March 13, 2012

The newest attack of vague language is aimed at your 1st Amendment rights of Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly and Freedom to Petition. It is found in the pending legislation of H.R. 347.… As currently worded, it might as well have been called the “Federal We’re Too Important To Be Annoyed By Your Protest Act ...

The War on Terrorism, the Constitution, and Civil Liberties (video)

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 20, 2012

On February 18, 2012, the Future of Freedom Foundation sponsored a panel entitled "The War on Terrorism, the Constitution, and Civil Liberties" at the 5th annual International Students for Liberty Conference. The panel included Bruce Fein and FFF president Jacob G. Hornberger and was moderated by Jack Hunter.

FFF/YAL Civil Liberties College Tour: War on Terrorism, Civil Liberties, and the Constitution (videos)

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 17, 2012

In the second week of February 2012, the Future of Freedom Foundation and Young Americans for Liberty cosponsored a panel entitled "The War on Terrorism, the Constitution, and Civil Liberties" that included Bruce Fein, Glenn Greenwald, and FFF president Jacob G. Hornberger. The panel visited Columbia University in New York, Indiana University/Purdue University in Indianapolis, Middle Tennessee State University ...

What Are You Afraid Of if You Have Nothing to Hide?

by Matthew Harwood January 1, 2012

The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades our Liberties by David K. shipler (New York: Knopf 2011), 384 pages. Late this past spring, two U.S. senators finally had the courage to look Big Brother in its inhuman, electronic eye and try to come clean on the USA PATRIOT Act. According to Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Org.) ...

Imperialist Attacks on Freedom of Speech

by Rich Schwartzman October 31, 2011

The US House Judiciary Committee passed a bill earlier this month that — should it become law — could put me in jail for a joke I made years ago. Back when I still had hair on my head, some friends and I loved Wednesday night at the Deer Park, a bar and restaurant in Newark, Delaware. Wednesday was Nacho ...

The Freedoms Defended Since 9/11

by Anthony Gregory September 9, 2011

“Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward,” said George W. Bush on September 11, 2011. “And freedom will be defended.” President Obama apparently agrees that the U.S. government’s response to 9/11 has been to defend freedom. This past Memorial Day he announced, “From Gettysburg to Kandahar, America’s sons and daughters have served with honor and distinction, securing ...

Coming Soon to an Airport Near You

by Wendy McElroy July 6, 2011

If you fly within the United States in the future, keep your expression neutral, do not blink too much or too little, and do not sweat. Carefully maintain a normal respiration and heart beat as you submit to demands from Homeland Security agents. If you question or resist their demands, you could be detained as a pre-crime suspect, fined ...

TSA Abuses: Seeing the Forest and the Trees

by Anthony Gregory June 30, 2011

The Transportation Security Administration is finally getting some of the bad publicity it deserves. We read about an elderly woman forced to remove her adult diaper to go through the screening process. We learn about a mentally disabled passenger deprived of his harmless toy by a sadistic policy, if not sadistic TSA agents. We see pictures of women and ...

Data Rape

by Wendy McElroy May 5, 2011

Americans have been so bombarded with fear-drenched messages about the need to shut out foreign terrorists that few consider whether they are also being shut in. A 5-page biographical questionnaire, Form DS-5513, is being proposed as a new requirement for at least some Americans who seek a passport. The questionnaire is so intrusive as to constitute data rape. ...

The Government Is Watching You

by Sheldon Richman April 29, 2011

Most Americans seem detached from the U.S. government’s military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere. U.S. forces not only engage in wanton killing and harsh treatment of prisoners, but also surveillance and other intelligence activities that might appall the American people if they were used at home. Well, guess what: “Technologies and techniques honed for use on ...

Is There a Right to Live Where You Choose?

by Laurence M. Vance April 27, 2011

In addition to certain days being designated as holidays, the federal government and various organizations have also singled out certain days, weeks, and months as times to emphasize a particular issue or commemorate a group or event. Some of these are well known, like Earth Day (April 22) and Black History Month (February); others are fairly obscure, like National Cancer ...

No One Is Safe under the Espionage Act of 1917

by Wendy McElroy April 1, 2011

According do a Wall Street Journal editorial (December 7, 2010), “Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dianne Feinstein called for the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange because he ‘continues to violate ... the Espionage Act of 1917.’” Assange’s sin? He leaked thousands of diplomatic cables that embarrassed the American government, especially in the realm of foreign policy. Many ...