ABSTRACT
Measures designed to increase security often entail a constriction of liberty. Charters of individual liberties, like a bill of rights, are commonplace today in the constitutions of many governments in the world. Civil liberties rest on at least two kinds of supports: First are rules and institutions. Federal and state statutes and constitutions carve out certain rights for protection, and courts and other bodies exist to enforce them. Second are the attitudes and values of the people generally and of opinion leaders and those entrusted with making, enforcing, and interpreting the laws. On October 26, 2001, President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law. In another Civil War action, Lincoln imposed martial law on portions of the northern states and substituted trial by military commission for the judicial process in dealing with traitors and others charged with violations of wartime statutes.
