COUNTERTERRORISM LEGISLATION: AN ANALYSIS OF THREE FEDERAL LAWS AND THEIR IMPACT ON U.S. COUNTERTERRORISM EFFORTS

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. enacted several laws aimed at bolstering counterterrorism efforts and clarifying authorities to wage the War on Terror. The 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) gives the President broad authority to neutralize terrorism personalities and their supporters across the globe, the Military Commissions Acts of 2006 and 2009 set the framework for handling the unprivileged enemy combatants captured during the War on Terror and held in Guantanamo, and the USA Freedom Act of 2015 refocuses the balance of privacy and national security by banning the bulk collection of telephonic and electronic metadata that was previously authorized under the USA PATRIOT Act. This paper identifies whether these laws have strengthened or diminished the U.S.’s capacity to fight terrorism and are relevant in the present counterterrorism environment. Qualitative data has been collected that are both in support and that are critical of each piece of legislation. Analysis of the data has determined the 2001 AUMF is flexible, necessary, and should remain in effect unaltered. The Military Commissions Acts are a failure and are likely used as a bureaucratic tool to enable the indefinite preventive detention of terrorism suspects. The USA PATRIOT Act succeeded in heading off privacy concerns and evaluating the success of the bulk collection program without a significant loss of capability