Hacker News Reader

> Emergency measures being valid for the duration of the emergency would be pretty straightforward.

Deciding when the emergency is over is less straightforward than a fixed time period. A government that wanted to extend the measures indefinitely would just claim there's still an emergency.

View on HN

For example the Patriots Act in USA, signed into law after 9/11 attacks. The sunset was in 2005, but it's still in force.

But the cooperation of legislators is required because of the fixed deadlines. If the government would be allowed the right to extend the provisions on their own, they probably would try to do that in perpetuity. With a legislative branch that actually cares about civil rights, the former is the much better option.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com