More than two years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, debate
continues to swirl around the law born of those times, the USA
Patriot Act. Passed almost without dissent on Oct. 26, 2001, the
Patriot Act greatly enhanced law enforcement officials' powers to
pursue terrorists, both foreign and domestic. Once the crisis
atmosphere that the attacks generated began to fade, officials at
both the city and state levels (as well as private citizens) began
to question whether the law undermines citizens' civil rights under
the Constitution.
A Gallup Poll conducted in November 2003* indicates that public
familiarity with the Patriot Act is still fairly low, and Americans
appear unwilling to have their civil rights violated in the name of
defense against terrorism. The data also show that Americans are
growing more likely to say that the Bush administration has gone
too far in restricting civil liberties in the fight against
terrorism.
America's Civil Liberty Awakening
At the outset of 2002, just a few months after the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks, Americans were evenly divided about the steps
the government should take to prevent additional acts of terrorism.
In January 2002, 47% of Americans said that the government should
take "all steps necessary" to prevent future acts of terrorism in
the United States, even if it means violating people's basic civil
liberties. Forty-nine percent said the government should take steps
to prevent additional acts of terrorism, but not if those
steps would violate civil liberties. The November 2003 data paint a
different picture -- in that survey, just under a third (31%) said
that any steps necessary should be taken to prevent terrorism,
while 64% said the government should take steps but not
violate people's civil liberties. The data have shown a roughly
2-to-1 margin against violating civil liberties since September
2002.
Americans Unfamiliar With Patriot Act
When asked about the Patriot Act by name for the first time in
August 2003, almost half of Americans said they weren't familiar
with the Patriot Act. Attorney General John Ashcroft's efforts last
September to tout the value of the new law, and the media coverage
and debate that accompanied his tour did little to change this. In
November, 53% of the public said it was either very (12%) or
somewhat (41%) familiar with the Patriot Act, while the other half
was either not too (25%) or not at all (22%) familiar.
Going Too Far?
Over the last two years, the public has become increasingly
likely to feel that the Bush administration is going too far in
restricting civil liberties in order to fight terrorism. Although
only about a quarter of the population (28%) said this last
November, that percentage had increased steadily from 11% in June
2002. The November poll showed roughly half of Americans saying the
Bush administration had been "about right" in its handling of civil
liberties and the fight on terrorism, while 21% said the
administration had not gone far enough.
Gallup also asked this same question in reference to the Patriot
Act, and found that responses mirror those applied to the Bush
administration's security measures. Twenty-five percent of
Americans said that the Patriot Act goes too far in restricting
civil liberties, 45% said it is about right, and 20% said it does
not go far enough.
*Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,004
national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Nov. 10-12, 2003. All
questions reported in this story are based on randomly selected
halves of the sample (roughly 500 interviews). For results based on
these samples of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence
that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±5 percentage
points.
