Civil Liberties & Privacy

The Bipartisan Assault on the Right to Travel

by Ted Galen Carpenter September 13, 2023

Americans used to boast proudly that unlike most countries in the world, domestic travel in the United States was unfettered by legal obstacles. Unfortunately, an array of restrictions on airline travel reduced that freedom, but one could still drive from Massachusetts to California without once having to “show your papers” at a checkpoint. Increasingly, though, that freedom to travel ...

There Is No Right to a Religious Accommodation

by Laurence M. Vance July 19, 2023

Overshadowed by the Supreme Court decision in the case of Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College that struck down affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina — which was decided on the same day — was the court’s ruling in ...

Don’t Trust the Government with Your Privacy, Property or Your Freedoms

by John W. Whitehead January 13, 2023

How do you trust a government that continuously sidesteps the Constitution and undermines our rights? You can’t. When you consider all the ways “we the people” are being bullied, beaten, bamboozled, targeted, tracked, repressed, robbed, impoverished, imprisoned and killed by the government, one can only conclude that you shouldn’t trust the government with your privacy, your property, your life, or ...

The Historical Foundation of Civil Liberties, Part 3

by Tom G. Palmer January 1, 2023

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 This article is from a transcript of the opening presentation of FFF’s September 21, 2021, conference “Restoring Our Civil Liberties.” Let’s examine the contemporary use of the term civil liberties. The use of the term in the way that we’re now accustomed to dates to the repressive measures of World ...

From Totalitarian Paranoia to Authoritarian Madness

by John W. Whitehead December 29, 2022

The danger signs were everywhere in 2022. With every new law enacted by federal and state legislatures, every new ruling handed down by government courts, and every new military weapon, invasive tactic and egregious protocol employed by government agents, we were reminded that in the eyes of the government and its corporate accomplices, “we the people” possess no rights except ...

The Historical Foundation of Civil Liberties, Part 2

by Tom G. Palmer December 1, 2022

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 This article is from a transcript of the opening presentation of FFF’s September 21, 2021, conference “Restoring Our Civil Liberties.” In the later classical period, a new system, which came to be known as democracy, emerged, notably in Athens. It was based on the liberty of the citizens and was ...

The Historical Foundation of Civil Liberties, Part 1

by Tom G. Palmer November 1, 2022

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 This article is from a transcript of the opening presentation of FFF’s September 21, 2021, conference “Restoring Our Civil Liberties.” When we think about civil liberties, it’s very common in contemporary discourse to distinguish civil liberties from economic liberties, even political liberties. And occasionally, you’ll hear the term civil liberties ...

All the Ways in Which Our Rights Have Been Usurped

by John W. Whitehead September 16, 2022

“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.” — Abraham Lincoln It’s easy to become discouraged about the state of our nation. We’re drowning under the weight of too much debt, too many wars, too much power in the hands of a ...

Online Conference: Restoring Our Civil Liberties

by Future of Freedom Foundation November 9, 2021

REGISTER TODAY Civil liberties are an essential prerequisite to a free society. Our American ancestors understood this important principle, which is why they demanded the enactment of the Bill of Rights as a condition for approving the Constitution. Our civil liberties have never been more endangered than they ...

Authoritarian Monsters Wreak Havoc on Our Freedoms

by John W. Whitehead October 29, 2021

“You see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for one this fall. You think they’re people just like you. You’re wrong. Dead wrong.” — They Live We are living in an age of mayhem, madness and monsters. Monsters with human faces walk among us. Many of them work ...

The Jackboots Are Coming

by John W. Whitehead June 21, 2019

“Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest—forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism How do you persuade a populace to embrace ...

Know Your Rights or You Will Lose Them

by John W. Whitehead December 12, 2018

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” — Thomas Jefferson We are approaching critical mass, the point at which all hell breaks loose. The government is pushing us ever closer to a constitutional crisis. What makes the outlook so much bleaker is the ...