CRS Issue Statement on Civil Liberties and National Security

Edward C. Liu, Coordinator
Legislative Attorney


Balancing the need to detect and thwart activities that pose a threat to U.S. national security with the need to safeguard the civil liberties of U.S. persons continues to be an important policy challenge facing the 111th Congress. As the final report issued by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission Report) noted, 

We must find ways of reconciling security with liberty, since the success of one helps protect the other. The choice between security and liberty is a false choice, as nothing is more likely to endanger America's liberties than the success of a terrorist attack at home. Our history has shown us that insecurity threatens liberty. Yet, if our liberties are curtailed, we lose the values that we are struggling to defend. 

Tactics employed to detect national security threats continue to implicate individuals' civil liberties. Electronic surveillance of communications to and from foreign intelligence targets can also capture innocent conversations and chill the exercise of First Amendment rights. New technologies may more effectively screen for explosives or other weapons, but simultaneously produce more revealing images of passengers' bodies. The broadened use of national security letters can provide investigators with a fuller picture to better allocate resources toward more serious threats, but also subject a larger universe of private financial or personal documents to disclosure. As Congress attempts to strike an appropriate balance between the need to detect and thwart activities that pose a threat to U.S. national security and the need to safeguard the civil liberties of U.S. persons, the following issues are likely to remain of interest.


Date of Report: January 13, 2010
Number of Pages: 4
Order Number: IS40264
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