Introduction Archives
Introduction

On September 11, 2001, a series of coordinated attacks were carried out at the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, leaving approximately 3,000 dead in the immediate aftermath. The attacks were carried out by 19 hijackers who took control of four commercial airliners–two struck the World Trade Center, one struck the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after a struggle between the hijackers and the passengers. Al Qaeda fell under immediate suspicion in the days following the attacks. Although the organization initially denied involvement, al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attacks in 2004, citing US support of Israel, the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia, and US foreign policy toward the Arab world as motives for the attacks.
The legal effects of the attacks have been far-reaching during the past decade. In an international military response, President George W. Bush launched the War on Terror, and the ongoing use of military force has been the source of deep controversy in the international community. The US also undertook a series of domestic legal actions intended to expand the ability of US intelligence and law enforcement authorities to prevent future attacks. The most notable of these efforts was the passage of the Patriot Act and the expansion of federal surveillance authority. These legislative and executive actions have been both touted as necessary for domestic safety and decried as resulting in severe civil rights abuses.
As a result of military actions and increased efforts to combat terrorism, the US has detained and interrogated suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba–sparking allegations of torture and political and legal conflicts over the status of detainees held at the facility. The potential prosecution of these detainees also created tension between civilian and military authorities, especially in regards to the creation of a new body of military commissions to handle the trials and the habeas corpus rights of the accused terrorists.

THIS DAY @ LAW

White supremacists overthrow government in Wilmington, North Carolina

A group of white supremacists overthrew the government of Wilmington, North Carolina on November 10, 1898, killing at least dozens of Black people in the process. The city's Republican government resigned after the 500-2,000 strong white mob burned the offices of a Black-owned newspaper and terrorized black neighborhoods. The new state Democratic government passed laws in 1899 disenfranchising Black voters across North Carolina. Learn more about the 1898 Wilmington Coup.

Supreme Court limited free speech in wartime

On November 10, 1919, the US Supreme Court ruled in Abrams v. United States that the federal government could criminalize speech if it was of a type tending to bring about harmful results, in this case, resistance to the United States war effort. In a powerful dissenting opinion, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes countered that even during wartime, free speech could only be curtailed when there was clear and "present danger of immediate evil or an intent to bring it about."

Leonid Brezhnev dies

On November 10, 1982, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died of a heart attack. He had served as leader of the USSR from October 1964 until his death. Following his death, the Soviet Union cycled through three more leaders during the 1980s until Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the country to dissolve in 1991. Read an obituary of Leonid Brezhnev from the New York Times.