Opinion ID: 2605
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: concluding observation

Text: I have no reason whatever to doubt the seriousness of the challenge that terrorism poses to our safety and well-being. See generally, e.g., Philip Bobbitt, Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century (2008). During another time of national challenge, however, Justice Jackson, joined by Justice Frankfurter, dissented from the Supreme Court's decision that the due process rights of an unadmitted alien were not violated when he was kept indefinitely on Ellis Island without a hearing. See Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel. Mezei, 345 U.S. 206, 73 S.Ct. 625, 97 L.Ed. 956 (1953). The alien's entry had been determined by the Attorney General to be prejudicial to the public interest for security reasons, id. at 208, 73 S.Ct. 625, and he had therefore been excluded from the United States. Although Mezei was an immigration case with little bearing on the matter before us today, Justice Jackson's observations then, at a time when we thought ourselves in imminent and mortal danger from international Communism, see, e.g., United States v. Dennis, 183 F.2d 201, 213 (2d Cir.1950) (L. Hand, J.), aff'd, 341 U.S. 494, 71 S.Ct. 857, 95 L.Ed. 1137 (1951), are worth repeating now: The Communist conspiratorial technique of infiltration poses a problem which sorely tempts the Government to resort to confinement of suspects on secret information secretly judged. I have not been one to discount the Communist evil. But my apprehensions about the security of our form of government are about equally aroused by those who refuse to recognize the dangers of Communism and those who will not see danger in anything else. Shaughnessy, 345 U.S. at 227, 73 S.Ct. 625 (Jackson, J., dissenting). [34] When it came to protection of the United States from then  perceived threats from abroad, Jackson was no absolutist. See American Communications Ass'n v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 422-52, 70 S.Ct. 674, 94 L.Ed. 925 (1950) (Jackson, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (addressing the threat of international Communism); Terminiello v. City of Chicago, 337 U.S. 1, 37, 69 S.Ct. 894, 93 L.Ed. 1131 (1949) (Jackson, J., dissenting) (warning that if if the Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic [as to freedom of speech] with a little practical wisdom, there is a danger that it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact). But with respect to the government's treatment of Mr. Mezei, he concluded: It is inconceivable to me that this measure of simple justice and fair dealing would menace the security of this country. No one can make me believe that we are that far gone. Shaughnessy, 345 U.S. at 227, 73 S.Ct. 625 (Jackson, J., dissenting). I think Justice Jackson's observations warrant careful consideration at the present time and under present circumstances.