Rights vs security & privacy
Should Constitutional Rights Be Suspended in Emergencies?
LNAT Section B · Model essay
The essay prompt
When a state faces a genuine emergency, such as terrorism, war or a pandemic, may it lawfully suspend the constitutional rights of its citizens? Argue the case both ways and reach a reasoned conclusion.
The stance
Core constitutional rights should never be suspended during a state of emergency; the law already permits narrowly tailored, time-limited derogations under proportionality and judicial oversight, which is the only legitimate way to bend rights without breaking them.
The case for
Constitutions exist precisely to constrain power when the temptation to abuse it is greatest.
The whole point of a constitution is to limit the state during crises, not in calm. If rights can be suspended exactly when the executive feels most threatened, the constitution fails at the moment it matters most. Lincoln's unilateral suspension of habeas corpus during the American Civil War, which Chief Justice Taney held unlawful in Ex parte Merryman, shows the danger: a core safeguard against arbitrary detention was extinguished just when detainees needed it.
The case against
The survival of the state must come before the niceties of process.
On a Schmittian view, the sovereign is whoever decides on the exception; in a true emergency the executive must act decisively, and rigid adherence to ordinary rights risks the collapse of the very order that protects those rights. A dead constitution protects no one.
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