In the past we have seen many civil liberties violationed. This includes the Sedition Act, which stopped anybody from writing anything that opposed the government, and the Japanese Internment during World War II.
Any prisoner that is held in Guantanamo Bay is denied the right of habeas corpus as it states in this article. The Geneva Convention also protects the detainees from torture which has occurred in Guantanamo Bay. Finally people have been held in Guantanamo Bay for over two years without trial.
This leads to the questions, why are civil liberties constantly violated during wartime? Are the civil liberties that are being violated today more or less justified than the civil liberties that were violated in the past?
I think that wartime instills fear in the populace, making it that much easier for people to accept violations of civil liberties. Governments tend to use this to further their ultimate goal of gaining power, as history has proven. I think that the civil liberties abuses have gotten significantly worse from before. With the patriot act and other similar legislation, Americans have very little personal freedom. Now,just about all major financial transactions are monitored by the government. The government can wiretap our phones without warrants, and other warrantless searches are not uncommon. To my knowledge, Habeas Corpus is also no longer a protected right. This is a very dangerous trend, no doubt about it.
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