Teaching Beyond September 11th Project

Domestic Policy

Civil liberties have been under attack for the last twenty years, starting with the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, which sailed through Congress in just three days with overwhelming bi-partisan support (357–66) and no debate on the house floor. The ACLU describes this bill as an “overnight revision of the nation's surveillance laws that vastly expanded the government's authority to spy on its own citizens, while simultaneously reducing checks and balances on those powers like judicial oversight, public accountability, and the ability to challenge government searches in court”. Fear and othering of American citizens was used to justify this bill to the public. The USA PATRIOT Act and other laws have allowed for the curtailing of civil liberties in the name of security not just of those targeted by these laws, but for all Americans. The modules in this theme illustrate for students exactly how far reaching and dangerous some of these policies are and how it can and does impact them.

2002 – Infringing on Civil Liberties: Racial/Religious Profiling, Surveillance, and Targeting of Muslims 
2004 – Civil Liberties after 9/11 
2017 – The Muslim and African Ban