The Preventive State: The Challenge of Preventing Serious Harms While Preserving Essential Liberties

—Stephen Breyer, Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

If reliable but uncertain intelligence predicted a mass casualty terrorist attack and indicated likely suspects,

what preventive actions would be constitutionally authorized? Detention? Interrogation? Torture? What if the attack involved a weaponized virus? Should the government compel widespread inoculation that might kill hundreds of people while saving millions...