Alan Dershowitz, a well-known legal scholar and bestselling writer, clearly reasons out in his book why the Fifth Amendment rights is significant. Here, he also explains these rights are being restructured, narrowed-down, and, in a way, revoked following the September 11 tragedy.

“The right to remain silent,” which is guaranteed by the well-known Fifth Amendment case of Miranda versus Arizona, is said to be among the most easily acknowledged and often-quoted Constitutional Right in the culture of the US. In spite of the amendment’s omnipresence, there occurs, however, a misinterpretation on the protections it assures to keep.

While issues on security have peaked, law enforcement has also progressively turned its focus from crime punishment to crime prevention. Alan Dershowitz questions the current decisions of the Supreme Court that has resulted to the embrace of coercive interrogations, despite knowing that it further leads to persecution. These decisions are implemented if carried out to prevent crime, particularly a terrorist assault, and as long as the outcomes of the interrogations are not presented into evidence at a criminal court case of the coerced individual. As a result, the court has provided a go-signal to all defensive interrogation processes.

In mapping out the Fifth Amendment’s history from its formation in the Bill of Rights to this day, wherein the main focus of the country is national security, Alan Dershowitz introduces his own understanding of the Fifth Amendment after 9/11. Since the world continues to change from a “deterrent state” to a keen vigilance of the current “preventative state,” the people’s comprehension should as well change. People need to make a jurisprudence that will consist of practical and substantive policies for all activities acted out by officials in the government so as to avoid threatening conduct – including violence.

Thus, Is There a Right to Remain Silent?, which is stimulating and insightfully written, gives us an interesting view on one of America’s most remarkable Constitutional Rights at a time when it is most critical in the nation’s history.