Since the founding of this Nation, the Federal government has served two important purposes: protecting individual rights and protecting the safety of the people. In times of crisis, there has been present the historical challenge of balancing liberty and personal freedoms with the security and safety of the people. This is an issue that has arisen time and time again – examples from recent history are – after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 – the government began more aggressive means of gathering information. Under the Bush and Obama administrations, the federal government secretly collected phone records and monitored phone and internet conversations and accessed the internet activity of millions of people living in this country. The government defended this conduct in the interest of national security. Much more recently, in the face of the current COVID-19 pandemic, almost every state and the federal government issued shelter-in-place orders that are clearly an enormous and almost unprecedented curtailment of our individual civil liberties. Both federal and state governments have defended their stay in place orders saying it is necessary for the public health and safety and the collective well-being of all people. Evaluate/ discuss where you stand on this issue providing support and authority from the Bill of Rights or the Three Branches of the Federal Government to support your position: Under what circumstances – if any – would you consider giving up personal freedoms for security and safety. To ask the question another way is – to what extent if any are you willing to sacrifice civil liberties in the interests of national security, national safety or collective health and well-being.
