Terrorist attacks, war prompt changes in Americans’ legal rights

The government has imposed many new limits on Americans’ legal rights as it fights a war on terror, fundamentally altering the nation’s delicate balance between liberty and security.

The changes including the authority in terror cases to imprison Americans indefinitely, without charges or defense lawyers substantially expand the government’s ability to investigate, arrest, try and detain.

Changes to civil liberties since Sept. 11Freedom of association: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity.Freedom of information: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist records requests.Freedom of speech: Librarians or keepers of any other records may be prosecuted if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.Right to legal representation: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.Freedom from unreasonable searches: Government may search and seize Americans’ papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigations.Right to a speedy and public trial: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.Right to liberty: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.

They grant law enforcement easier access to Americans’ personal lives while keeping many government operations secret. And the idea that law-abiding citizens can freely associate with other law-abiding citizens without the threat of government surveillance no longer holds.

The Bush administration will not abuse these far-reaching powers, said Viet Dinh, an assistant U.S. attorney general: “I think security exists for liberty to flourish and liberty cannot exist without order and security,” Dinh said.

Still, even supporters are wary.

“One has to pray that those powers are used responsibly,” said Charlie Intriago, a former federal prosecutor and money laundering expert in Miami who said the new provisions could help intercept terrorists’ finances.

The USA Patriot Act, hurriedly adopted by Congress and signed by Bush six weeks after the terror attacks, tipped laws in the government’s favor in 350 subject areas involving 40 federal agencies.

The Bush administration has since imposed other legal changes without congressional consent, such as allowing federal agents to monitor attorney-client conversations in federal prisons and encouraging bureaucrats to deny public access to many documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

The FBI can monitor political and religious meetings inside the United States now, even when there’s no suspicion a crime has been committed a policy abandoned in the 1970s amid outrage over J. Edgar Hoover’s surveillance of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The American Civil Liberties Union, media companies and other organizations are challenging many of the changes, and judges have ruled against the administration in a few early cases. The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on any of the challenges.

“Are we any safer as a nation? I don’t know,” said Anthony Romero, ACLU director. “Are we less free? You bet.”

Americans may never know how valid their concerns are, since everything about terror-related investigations is secret.