9/11 Legacy

H.L. Pohlman's book focuses on terrorism and its impact on civil liberties

March 18, 2008

Professor of Political Science H.L. Pohlman in his Denny Hall office. In his new book, Pohlman shows how recent court cases affect the shifting and sometimes blurred line separating government and individual rights.

Professor of Political Science H.L. Pohlman's latest book is not advertised as the first in an ongoing series, but it could be remembered that way.

Terrorism and the Constitution: The Post-9/11 Cases offers examples of where civil liberties, presidential power and constitutional case law have intersected in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Unlike many of the vocal proponents on either side of the debate in the war on terror, Pohlman provides a balanced account of the central issues that is long on facts and short on bombast.

Pohlman, who holds the A. Lee Fritschler Chair of Public Policy, focuses on five cases: Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004), Padilla v. Bush (2004), Rasul v. Bush (2006), United States v. Moussaoui (2006) and a case from 2002 that addressed whether surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was consistent with the Fourth Amendment.

Using details, including transcripts, from the cases, Pohlman shows their impact on the shifting and sometimes blurred line separating government and individual rights. His postscripts shed light on where that line may be redrawn.

"One major concern with leaving the issue of balancing civil liberties and national security during wartime to one of the two political branches of the federal government, or to both of them together, is that they are subject to shifts in public opinion, including the hysteria that all too often accompanies wartime crises and emergencies," Pohlman states in the introduction. "For that reason, both the president and Congress are arguably less well suited for performing the responsibility than the unelected federal judiciary."

Additional cases are making their way through the courts and the political arena with no end in sight to the debate. In the last month alone, a technical glitch gave the FBI access to the e-mail messages from an entire computer network rather than the one message it was authorized to see. And the U.S. House broke for recess without renewing terrorist surveillance authority sought by President Bush, prompting warnings by Republicans of risky intelligence gaps and accusations by Democrats of fear-mongering.

The 2008 presidential election will add more voices to the debate. Sen. John McCain, who recently gained enough delegates to win the Republican nomination for president, has made national security key to his campaign. His Democratic opponent—either Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama—likely will argue for a better way to achieve national security.

"Even if the American economy is the number-one issue, the Iraq War will be a close second," Pohlman said last week. "Following President Bush's example, McCain will likely link the Iraq War to the war on terrorism, run on his national-security experience and paint the Democrats as soft on terrorism. The Democratic nominee will respond in kind. She or he will argue that Bush has terribly mismanaged the war on terrorism and that the U.S. can regain its reputation in the world only if we fight the war in accordance with basic standards of justice, fairness and due process. The ongoing probe into the destruction of the CIA videotapes of the interrogations of high-level detainees, along with other investigations, will keep these issues in the public's eye throughout the fall campaign."