Freedom Exercise Clause
With regard to the Free Exercise Clause, stipulating that the government should not limit the religious’ rights of individuals, prisoners’ religious rights should not be restricted either. Such a position also underlines the importance of considering the prohibition imposed on the government to interfere with religious issues. These two basic arguments justify the Court decision uphold prisoners’ religious rights (Johnson, 2005).
However, the concern might arise in case prisoners’ faith can bring in disorder to the institutions to which a person is confined. This is of particular concern to case when religious implies racial separation, Satanism, and a Wiccan witch (Johnson, 2005). The problem, however, could be eliminated as soon as a golden medium is found. Specifically, the government will have to provide all necessary resources and tools for prisoners to uphold of their religious beliefs.
Similar concerns should be raised in case of detainees during the War in Iraq. The prisoners’ religious and human rights were severely abused because of failure to follow the provisions of the First Amendment. Certainly, some of the actions initiated against the Iraqi soldiers were explained by the subjective attitude of the U.S. government and their concerns with terrorist attacks. Even under these circumstances, the policies against prisoners will regard the U.S. actions as discriminative ones.
Once again, prisoners’ religious rights in Iraq should be concerned unless they undermine the security of the Untied States. Due to the fact that the Muslims have a number of rituals and traditions that could threaten the safety of other individuals, the prisoners’ religious rights should be reconsidered in accordance to the Amendments and provisions of the U.S. constitutions. For instance, individuals should adhere to the moral principle and do not interfere with the freedom and rights of other individuals.
Freedom and Equality
The Patriot Act focuses on enforcement of laws protecting the U.S. citizens from terrorist attack. Initiated after the events happened in September 11, 2001 and since that time, the government is working on the strengthening security in public places, as well as development of effective databases that would monitor information exchange (U.S. Department of Justice, 2004).
Such an action is justified in terms security of the country because it allows the citizens to adjust to the new dangers and threats of the reality, as well as learn the strategies to reduce the safety risk.
Intelligence officials have applied to advanced technological devices to take greater control of the governmental and public processes. Improvements are necessary to better confront terrorism, but not at the expense of liberties and equalities of the U.S. citizens. This is of particular concern to transparency policies as far as private records of people are concerned.
However, excess focus on security and protection against terrorism interferes significantly with the privacy rights of Americans, which also violates their constitutional rights as well. According to research introduced by American Civil Liberties Union (2005), there is much inconsistence in regard to the policies introduced by the Bush administration.
In particular, the law enforcement does not justify interference in privacy issue of innocent Americans. Neither does this law justify the measures taken to prevent terrorism. Therefore, by implementing security measures, specific attention should also be given to previously adopted laws, particularly those that concern liberty and equality of individuals living in the United States. Therefore, the U.S. Constitution should undergo reasonable shifts that would not violate its major principles.
References
American Civil Liberties Union. (2005). ACLU Says President’s Patriot Act Push Again Ignores Americans’ Concerns about Privacy, Calls on Congress to Resist Pressure and Protect Innocent Americans. Web.
Johnson, M. A. (2005). Court Upholds Prisoners’ Religious Rights. NBC News. Web.
U.S. Department of Justice. (2004). Report from the Field: The USA PATRIOT Act at Work. Web.