Do we really have civil liberties in America?

This is a question that I have been thinking about for the past weeks. What I would like to know is four things:

1)After 9/11, how do you think our civil liberties, as Americans, changed?

2)How do you define what civil liberties we have right now in the United States?

3)And if we--as Americans--did experience a loss of liberties, how do we remedy it?

4)And for those who think our civil liberties are still the same: why?

For myself, I would like to give this a little more thought before I put a post together regarding my thoughts. However, I would love to read what others think about this.

The major issue is Padilla. A US citizen captured on US soil and sent to a detentin facility, effectively stripped of his citizenship. And lets say that the government knows 'for sure' that he was plotting with terrorists, that they weren't just doing it as a test. There's precedent for it though, from WWII, so I don't know if you can really say that all that much has actually changed since 911. The big difference is that its an emotive situation, and bush is a lightening rod for vehement criticism, so people think that things now are fundamentally different.

There isn't much going on that is unprecedented anyway.

When thinking about it, you're right, Nygdan. Padilla is the test case. But knowing that the Supreme Court turned down hearing the case, it is something that has to be settled in a lesser court. However, the entire situation surrounding Mr. Padilla (among others that I've found out) should cause outrage among American citizens.

And if not that, then the cases of people arrested simply for expressing their "First Amendment Right" to dissent in a public venue (the two women arrested at a Santorum book signing; the "Free Speech Zones", not to mention "Guantanamo on the Hudson"). Because if we do not recognize that these incidents affect us, then I don't know what will. Even your mentioning of the NSA domestic spying-datamining case should disturb some people.

But, I wonder where is the outrage. It is a mantra of mine since I've uncovered cases such as these questioning dissent.