On April 24, 2001, the US Supreme Court declared that police have the right not only to detain ordinary citizens but to search, arrest & jail them on the basis of even the most trivial pretext. This work ponders that decision.

The book was created in the spring of 2001, some months before a terrorist attack brought down the World Trade Center. The impact of the calamity has radically altered a general sense of public safety that was basic for most Americans, and in the rush to protect us from future terrorism some government officials are propsing an ever greater intrusion into our privacy. Such abuse of power, however justified, would seem to ignore several problems (racial profiling, for one) that were on the verge of being openly assessed just prior to this event. How then can we insure the proper balance between the rights of an individual and the need for communal security? What concerns me now, as it did already months ago, is the greater risk, even sacrifice, such changes pose to our freedom.