From Academia: The Restriction of Civil Liberties during Times of Crisis: The Evolution of America 's Response to National Military Threats

A for real academic paper. 

Schenck v US provides a constitutional justification for this.

- Click here for it. 

This treatise explores the nature and significance of the threat posed to civil liberties during times of major national military crisis and evaluates changes in the nature of wartime repression over the course of American history. During times of national crisis, the American public and its elected officials react fearfully to perceived national threats by placing restrictions on basic civil liberties, restrictions that they later come to regret and see as the byproduct of histrionic fears. In broad outline, this pattern has been evident in every past national military crisis, from the Quasi-War against France in the 1790‘s through the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the Cold War. This pattern is further evident in today‘s ―War on Terror.‖

Yet while this broad pattern has been reflected in every major crisis in American history, including the twenty-first century ―War on Terror,‖ important changes have occurred over time in the way in which policymakers and the public respond to crises. These changes can be grouped loosely into three broad categories: (1) evolutionary changes in Americans‘ response to crises, (2) twentieth and twenty-first century developments in the nature of threats to American national security, and (3) twentieth and twenty-first century developments in government capabilities to monitor and suppress dissent in a covert manner.