Is it a sign of prudent safety or of surrender to terrorists?
Whatever the reason, the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to close its magnificent front doors and redirect visitors and lawyers through a "secure" and unimpressive side entrance to screen for weapons and explosives is a distressing symbol of 21st-century America. The house of justice is a house in fear.
Symbolically, this decision by the justices is the equivalent of closing the Statue of Liberty to visitors because of the fear of terrorists. Or suspending White House tours. Or banning visitors in the galleries of the U.S. House and Senate. Or shutting down the Grand Canyon to tourists. Or placing the Library of Congress off limits.
Taken together, all the precautionary anti-terrorism measures now in force throughout U.S. society—airport screenings, onboard air marshals, no-fly lists, heavily armed guards in public venues, TV surveillance cameras observing pedestrians on public streets, locked airliner cockpit doors—suggest a nation under siege whose enviable freedoms are being slowly regulated out of existence or severely limited.
Some might reasonably argue this is a surrender to terrorists. Others see these as measures to avoid the unpredictable.
Yet, when the nation's high court feels it must close the main entrance to hallowed halls where justice is dispensed, a powerful and unfortunate message is sent to terrorists that their detestable aim of death and destruction is forcing a great nation to cower.
