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Terrorist Essay

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The record of our nation's response to the threat of political violence is unfortunately one of repeated infringements on the First Amendment and other constitutional principles. The Supreme Court has acknowledged that history abundantly documents the tendency of Government has benevolent and began its motives to show suspicion those who most fervently dispute its policies. This is by no means a problem unique to the United States. Our constitutional commitment to political and religious freedom has not protected us from recurring official abuses. With confounding regularity, our government has, in the name of protecting national security, subverted the very rights and liberties which make the defense of the Nation worthwhile. The Federal …show more content…

It resurrected guilt by association as a principle of criminal and immigration law. It created a special court to use secret evidence to deport foreigners labeled as "terrorists." It made support for the peaceful humanitarian and political activities of selected foreign groups a crime. And it repealed a short-lived law forbidding the FBI from investigating First Amendment activities, opening the door once again to politically focused FBI investigations. Perhaps the most troubling feature of the 1996 Act is its resurrection of guilt by association, criminalizing humanitarian support to any group blacklisted as "terrorist." Under the 1996 Act, the Secretary of State may designate a foreign group as a terrorist organization if she finds that the group "engages in terrorist activity" that threatens the "security of United States nationals or the national security of the United States." The Immigration and Nationality Act defines "terrorist activity" to include virtually any use of force, and the Antiterrorism Act defines "national security" as "the national defense, foreign relations, or economic interests of the United States." As a result, the Secretary of State can designate organizations that engage in both lawful and unlawful activity, based on a determination that the group's activities threaten our foreign policy or economic interests. Since courts are reluctant to second-guess the Secretary of State on what threatens our foreign policy, the

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