The Challenge of War.

Historically, civil liberties and war have proved incompatible. Abraham Lincoln suspended the constitutional requirement that defendants be charged with crimes before imprisonment during the Civil War; Woodrow Wilson restricted free speech and open political activity during the First World War. Civil liberties during World War II were also restricted. While the government did significantly restrict freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and freedom of political association during the decade, federal officials were reluctant to engage in wholesale suspension of civil liberties. Such a suspension would evoke political opposition contrary to the efficiency of the war effort and would make the distinction between the United States and its enemies — a distinction crucial to the propaganda war — too blurry. Two Supreme Court cases regarding the individual's ability to refrain from overt displays of patriotism addressed this limit on...