Which party favors civil liberties over security?
When we are at war, the American people favor civil liberties less, and they favor national security more. And after that war, the pendulum swings the other way. So, during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, and nobody said, not even the Supreme Court said a word. After the Civil War, then the Supreme Court steps up and says, "Oh by the way, that was unconstitutional, Abe." You know, "You shouldn't have done that." FDR pretty much creates Japanese internment camps, and just rounds them up without due process of law at all and puts them in internment camps. Supreme Court doesn't say anything till after, because the Supreme Court knows that if it tried to, the American people are going to be like, "Eh, we're fighting a war! Shut up!" And that tends to be the way it works. So 9/11 created this horrible situation. People are less concerned with civil liberties right after 9/11, and the longer it goes without us having a terrorist attack, the more they're going to be more concerned with civil liberties. Until another terrorist attack happens, and then the pendulum is going to swing back.
