Balancing Liberty and Security: From the Early Republic to the War on Terror

Abstract

The eternal question posed by students, “Why do I have to learn this?” is being answered for them every day in the newspapers and on television with respect to the balance of liberty and security in time of war. Teachers often express the need for focused materials that approach this question from both historical and modern perspectives, and this high-school lesson provides that. The Latin maxim, Inter arma enim silent leges, translated, “In time of war the laws are silent” expresses the doctrine that security trumps liberty in wartime, but in this lesson, student will ask, “Is liberty necessarily the price of security? How have United States governments justified the curtailment of liberty in wartime?” This lesson presents students and teachers with hands-on focus activities, student manipulatives and role-plays, and primary source document analyses that will lead students to appraise the cost of security and whether the Constitution can be preserved by being abridged.

Citation

Burchard, V.C. (2007), "Balancing Liberty and Security: From the Early Republic to the War on Terror", Social Studies Research and Practice, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 228-243. https://doi.org/10.1108/SSRP-02-2007-B0007