Obligations of U.S. Government

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Obligations of U.S. Government

The U.S. government is the principal body responsible for providing the citizens and groups of citizens with rights and liberties. It is done through the system of laws that are designed to protect specific rights and liberties, which also empower the government to provide the security of the state. In turn, this may cause a conflict between the national security needs and rights of the citizens. The following text identifies the central obligations of the U.S. government to the citizens and how they can impact individual and group rights.

The main obligation that the government has to its citizens that can impact the rights of individuals and groups is the state security. All American people should feel that the government is doing all possible measures and takes precautions to ensure that the country is safe and secure from internal and external aggression (Levin-Waldman, 2012). This way, the citizens would be free to conduct all their activities with reasonable legal limits. However, the conflict between national security and citizens’ rights emerge in many situations, which can limit or eliminate the rights to conducts protected activities (Waxman, 2009). One of the latest examples of such dilemmas is the president’s Obama initiative to impose strict gun control legislation after San Bernardino shooting last year, which violates the Second Amendment (Steinbrook et al., 2016). Another example is the famous no-fly list which bans certain individuals to board planes because of their religion or possible connection to criminals, which enforces the government security bodies to add anyone without a thorough background check.

References

Levin-Waldman, O. M. (2012). American government. San Diego Bridgepoint Education.

Steinbrook, R., Stern, R. J., & Redberg, R. F. (2016). Firearm Injuries and Gun Violence: Call for Papers. JAMA Internal Medicine.

Waxman, M. C. (2009). Police and national security: American local law enforcement and counter-terrorism after 9/11. Journal of National Security Law & Policy, 3, 377.