Bill of Rights Institute » national security

Airport Security – Protective or Provocative?

laura vlk — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:00:21 +0000

While traveling this weekend, my mom and I were discussing whether we would still be required to take our shoes off at the airport since Osama bin Laden had been killed. She pulled up the TSA website and found that in the last week, they have confiscated:

7 artfully concealed prohibited items found at checkpoints
13 firearms found at checkpoints

In this light, taking off our shoes and going through metal detectors might be reasonable. But how far is too far? CBS news picked up this story about a pat-down at the Kansas City airport of a 6-month old baby after his stroller alarmed during explosive screening.

Reaction questions:

In your opinion is this an acceptable part of post-9/11 security?
In your opinion are full-body scanners and/or pat-downs here to stay?
Ultimately, do you feel safe when flying?

Can the man behind WikiLeaks be charged with violating the Espionage Act?

rgillespie — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:49:38 +0000

Should the U.S. be “scared of one guy with a laptop”? WikiLeaks’s release of thousands of classified U.S. diplomatic cables has frustrated governments around the world, including the U.S. The Justice Department is determining whether Australian citizen Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, along with whoever gave him the secret documents, can be charged under the Espionage Act.

The situation raises questions of press freedom in wartime and how technology has challenged the power of governments to keep information secret. Use these strategies to help your students understand the issues raised by the WikiLeaks case:

- Have students compare and contrast the facts of the Pentagon Papers case (New York Times v. U.S.) with the current WikiLeaks publication of secret documents.

- Play this conversation between Assange and a U.S. journalist, and have students vote in the accompanying poll about whether he violated the Espionage Act.

- Hold a mock trial presenting arguments on the question of whether Assange violated the Espionage Act.

If you are looking for additional materials, our Presidents and the Constitution, Volume I curriculum has a great lesson on President Wilson and the Espionage Act.

P.S. Thank you for your feedback! This week we created a separate Student Handout PDF (share it online with your students: http://bit.ly/WikiLeaksForStudents) and Teacher Answer Key for this lesson after hearing your comments from our web survey. Please let us know what else we can improve!

Do full body airport scans violate your Fourth Amendment rights?

veronica — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:04:05 +0000

Will you be flying this holiday season? The new TSA security procedures including full body scans and enhanced pat downs have been in the news for their possible privacy implications. The Fourth Amendment protects “the right of the people to be secure in their persons…against unreasonable searches.” What constitutes an unreasonable search?

Share this clip from the Today Show with students and ask them for their reactions:

What do you think? Try some of these strategies to discuss airport security and the Fourth Amendment with your students:

Write the Fourth Amendment out on the board and brainstorm synonyms for “secure,” “unreasonable,” and “search”.
Have a fishbowl debate on the constitutionality of the searches.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will hold a TSA oversight hearing Wednesday, November 17. Have students call or email their Senators expressing their opinions on the constitutionality of the new procedures. Students should write out bullet points of their key constitutional arguments to prepare.

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Freedom of Speech in the News | Daily News Headlines

rgillespie — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:39:25 +0000

Today’s daily news stories revolve around freedom of speech (particularly appropriate during National Freedom of Speech Week): an article about a voter who was told she was would have turn her shirt featuring President Obama inside-out in order to vote, and a story covering the free speech questions surrounding former NPR correspondent Juan Williams. What do you think?

By Pete Wright via Wikimedia Commons

- Obama T-shirt serves as voting ‘dress code’ reminder: Can the government stop voters from wearing politically-themed clothing to the polls?

- NPR’s federal funding questioned after analyst fired: Did NPR, which is partially funded with taxpayer dollars, abridge the First Amendment when it fired Juan Williams?

Do you agree with the actions taken in each of these articles?