Welcome Back, Free Speech.

In a free society, we don’t censor our critics. But about six years ago, the Bush administration decided to surrender that crucial First Amendment principle. They employed a provision of the Patriot Act to justify keeping two Muslim scholars from obtaining visas to travel to the United States for speaking engagements and a teaching position. But now, six years later, the State Department has determined they will lift the visa ban on Tariq Ramadan and Adam Habib. The New York Times reports that,

"As we look at it, we do not think that either one of them represents a threat to the United States," [State Department spokesman P.J.] Crowley told a news briefing, adding that the U.S. government hoped to encourage more interaction with the Muslim world. "We want to encourage a global debate. We want to have the opportunity potentially to have Islamic scholars come to the United States and have dialogue with other faith communities in our country," he said.

Adam Habib, a muslim scholar from Johannesberg University, “was detained and interrogated about his political views and associations when he arrived in New York in October 2006 for meetings with groups such as the World Bank and ACLU.” Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University had his visa reinstated and revoked several times; “Washington initially gave no reason for its decision, but later said Ramadan had been barred based on a provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows people to be excluded for supporting terrorism.” However, the ACLU has “argued the government was using the provision more broadly to deny entry to people whose political views it did not approve of.” This argument has been validated time and time again as incidents of the abuse of various Patriot Act provisions have surfaced over the years, such as the news this week by the Office of the Inspector General that “FBI agents for years sought sensitive records from telephone companies through e-mails, sticky notes, sneak peeks and other "startling" methods that violated electronic privacy law and federal policy”.

With Secretary Clinton’s and the State Department's decision, Ramadan and Habib may now reapply for US visas. So welcome back, free speech. The marketplace of ideas looks forward to your return. But until the Patriot Act is revised, we will continue to see censorship and privacy violations continue.