wyndhy,
Yes Mam. Minority Report is good Science Fiction entertainment. Phillip K. Dick was a famous SF author.
The problem of getting the correct balance of liberty and security is intractable. Just how difficult it can be to balance liberties against security can be seen in a Senate bill,
S.390, introduced in 1995 with the approval of the Clinton administration. Note that 3 of the 7 cosponsors are generally considered liberals: Sen. Feinstein, Sen. Kerrey, and Sen. Mikulski. The pressures for some apparent action by the government can be very powerful indeed.
The critical assessment of the effort -
from the right then, from the left now – always sounds the same.
Laws can be written so that they are time limited. The
1798 Sedition Act had a sunset clause written into it, and was allowed to lapse. If a law does not have a sunset clause, like
The Espionage Act Of 1917, it can be more difficult to get rid of. The act was subsequently repealed in 1921.
Of the two techniques, I prefer the first. It require periodic effort to keep it in force, rather than requiring the effort to repeal it. Once the perceived need for the law falls below some minimum, the votes to retain it will also.