CLINTON, N.Y., June 16, 2005 (AScribe Newswire) -- Members of Congress debating the Patriot Act should review the nation's past experiences of trading liberty for security, says Hamilton College government professor Robert Martin.
"What's missing is an appreciation of our history," says Martin, who teaches a seminar at Hamilton entitled, "Civil Liberties in Wartime,"
"Past restrictions of personal freedom and especially privacy in the face of national security threats should give us pause," says Martin. "From the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII, we Americans have time and time again approved restrictions on our freedoms only to regret it years later."
"History suggests that powers given will be powers used," he says. "Just ask radicals hauled before McCarthy in the '50s or those spied on by the FBI in the '60s.
"The Patriot Act gives lots of new powers, via myriad 'small but significant changes.' Apply all these new surveillance tools with minimized or removed judicial oversight on a political radical--newly labeled a 'domestic terrorist'--and the FBI file on Martin Luther King, Jr. will look like a mere Post-It note.
"It's not that we don't need more debate about this serious public policy issue. But we must remain mindful of our troubling history of trading liberty for security."
Martin teaches political theory, and his interests include American political thought, democratic theory, constitutional law, issues of privacy and those related to the First Amendment. His book, The Free and Open Press: The Founding of American Democratic Press Liberty, was published by NYU Press. His work has appeared in History of Political Thought, Polity, The Journal of the Early Republic and Political Research Quarterly.
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CONTACTS: Robert Martin, 315-859-4273, rmartin@hamilton.edu
Esena Jackson, Hamilton media relations, 315-859-4681, ejackson@hamilton.edu |
