Will Obama's Second Term Finally Fulfill His 2008 Promises?

This is the third installment in a series suggesting opportunities for the Obama administration, in its second term, to finally pursue his 2008 campaign promise to restore civil liberties.

The first installment in this series reviewed President Eisenhower’s prescient warnings about “the military-industrial complex…endanger[ing] our liberties or democratic processes,” and examined casualties of the national security state, including transparency, accountability, and democratic legitimacy, with a particular focus on the NSA’s dragnet spying program authorized by the FISA amendments of 2008 now before the Senate.

Part II discussed further costs of counter-terrorism, including budgetary waste and constitutional violations, concluding with an argument that closing Guantanamo Bay should not be the highest priority in the civil liberties arena.

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