CITIZEN ADVOCACY CENTER

 

POST 9/11 DUE PROCESS: THE USA PATRIOT Act

 

LESSON PLAN AND ACTIVITY 

 

Grade Level: 9, 10, 11, 12

 

Subject(s):

 

Duration:  4 class sessions

 

Description: 

This lesson plan stimulates classroom discussion on issues of security and civil liberties.  The purpose of this exercise is to get students to understand that the line between liberty and security is not always clear, and that liberty and security are largely dependent on one another. 

 

 

Goals: 

ISBE Standards:

1.  Social Science

·        14A: Understand and explain basic principles of the United States government.

 

Objectives:

1.      Students will be able to define the terms liberty and security.

2.      Students will be able to explain the relationship between liberty and security.

3.      Students will analyze issues surrounding the USA Patriot Act.

4.      Students will develop and debate arguments for and against the USA Patriot Act.

Materials:

1.      Notebook paper/pen

2.      Blank overhead, whiteboard or chalkboard

3.      Copy of “The Freedom Balance: worksheet for each student

4.      Pack of rights cards for each student

5.      Address information for your local official

 

Instruction and Activities:

 

  

Activity One:  The Freedom Balance

 

For lecture:

 

In any government, there has always been a delicate balance between liberties and security.   In the United States, liberties are those rights that are protected by the Bill of Rights as well as the more general liberty to live our lives how we want.  But we can’t always do whatever we want.  For example, I may get really angry and want to hit someone, but if everyone were allowed to hit each other when they got mad, no one would feel safe.  This is part of the reason why we have laws against hurting other people.  When we feel safe, we also feel freer to live our lives and do things like ride the bus, go to the playground, or take a walk.  But at the same time, if we have too many laws for safety, we start to lose liberty.  For example, if the government can know everything about our lives to make sure everyone is behaving well, we lose some of our right to live our lives privately.

 

Pass out the Freedom Balance Worksheet.  Have the students work either individually or in small groups to try and categorize the words given.  The purpose of this exercise is to get the students to realize that the line between liberty and security isn’t always clear and that liberty and security are largely dependent on one another.

 

After they have completed the exercise, ask the students these questions:

 

  1. Take a poll:  How many of you had trouble deciding which words belonged in the categories? Which ones were hardest to categorize?

 

  1. Why did you have difficulty deciding?

 

 

  1. Looking at how you categorized the words, do you see any relationship between liberty and security?  How are they similar?  How are they different?

 

  1. What do you think is more important in a democracy, liberty or security?  Why?

 

 

                        THE FREEDOM BALANCE

Instructions:

 

Look at the phrases and words below and decide if they represent liberty, security, or both.  For liberty, circle the word.  For security, put a box around the word.  If it is both liberty and security, underline.   Have a reason to support your answer.

 

 

DUE PROCESS         SEARCH WARRANT               WAR              ID CARDS

 

 

CENSORSHIP            DEMOCRACY                         SAFETY FROM HARM

 

 

DEFENSE                   PROTESTS                                GOVERNMENT

 

 

SPYING                      TERRORISM                            FREE SPEECH

 

 

JULY 4, 1776              CONSTITUTION                     LAWS

 

 

FBI                                EQUALITY                              POWER

The Patriot Act

 

Congress passed the USA Patriot Act in 2001 after the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001.  This group of new laws was meant to give law enforcement (FBI, CIA, Police, Military) new ways to find out more information about people and capture people they think might be dangerous.  But some of these new laws affect our due process rights too.

 

For example, in furtherance of the “War on Terror,” the Bush administration has labeled some individuals as “enemy combatants.”  These individuals are alleged to be involved in or to have supported terrorist activities.  Enemy combatants can be held indefinitely without charge and without the right to an attorney. 

 

Under international humanitarian law (the laws of war), a criminal suspect cannot be labeled as an enemy combatant except where there has been direct participation in or connection to an international armed conflict.  The ACLU among other groups has attacked the administration’s use of the “enemy combatant” classification as violating the US Constitution’s guarantees to speedy trial, to be formally charged, due process, attorneys in criminal proceedings, etc. 

 

Activity Two:   The USA Patriot Act and the Constitution

 

Pass out to students the pack of rights cards.  Each card represents a different due process right or other liberty guaranteed by the Constitution to both citizens and immigrants.

 

Choose one half of the class.  Tell them they are the immigrant group.  The other group will be the U.S. citizens.

 

Read the provisions of the Patriot Act.  For each provision, either the immigrant group or both the immigrant and citizen group will have to give up a card.   When an immigrant loses a right, he or she should pass the card to a citizen.  When both lose rights, they should turn the card face down.

 

 

Patriot Act scenarios to read:

1.  All non-citizen males of Middle-Eastern descent must report to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to “register.”  Once there, many are detained and held in jails without notice for questioning regarding terrorist activities.

 

2.  Individuals who are named “enemy combatants” by the president are held without being charged with a crime and without access to a lawyer, and are given non-public hearings by military tribunals.

 

3.  The FBI is given permission to search the records of libraries, bookstores, internet coffee houses, etc. for internet search records and book purchase/check-out records without informing you first. 

 

4.  Government officials listen in on conversations between jailed immigrants who are terrorist suspects and their lawyers.

 

5.  Immigrants who associate with certain religious organizations, charities, and churches are subject to investigation merely because they are members or are acquaintances with members of those organizations.  For example, Rashid, a 15 year-old boy, is a member of the local Muslim Youth Group.  The Youth Group is affiliated with the local mosque.  A cleric with the local mosque is critical of the US government, and states in a speech that he understands why the World Trade Center was bombed.  As a result, the government investigates the cleric and everyone who is associated with the mosque as member or employee, including Rashid.

 

 

Follow-up Questions:

  1. How did you feel when you had to give up the cards?  Did you feel it was right?  Why or why not?

 

  1. The Patriot Act was passed right after 9/11/2001 when terrorists hijacked three planes and destroyed the World Trade Center and severly damaged the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.  Do you think the government is acting reasonably by putting these new rules in place?  Do you see any problems with the rules?

 

Have the students do a secret vote for this question:

 

  1. Do you think it’s okay for the FBI to interview Arab-Amercians just based on their race?  For example, do you think it’s fair for the government to pull people out of line at the airport and question them because they are Arab? Write down your answer and why you answered that way on a piece of paper and pass it to the teacher to read aloud anonymously.  Get reactions from the class about what the students wrote.  Why do they agree or disagree?

 

 

Extension Activity

1.  For those students that want to, have them write a letter to their local representative saying why they agree or disagree with some or all of the Patriot Act.

Right to appeal a guilty verdict

The police must have a reason to interview you other than your national origin or race

Right to join a certain kind of activist group without being monitored

Right to privacy between a lawyer and a client being held in jail. Right to public trial by a jury

Right to be free from criminal investigation unless there is a good cause for it.

Right to privacy when you are on the phone or using the Internet

Right to be notified when the police are going to search your property

The government must charge you with a crime to hold you in jail

©Copyright 2005 Citizen Advocacy Center.  All rights reserved.  No part of this lesson plan may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior, written permission of the Citizen Advocacy Center. The Citizen Advocacy Center is a 501(c)(3) non-pofit, non-partisan community based legal organization. For information about the Center, or to make a tax deductible contribution, visit www.citizenadvocacycenter.org, call 630.833.4080. The Center is located at 238 N. York Rd., Elmhurst IL 60126