Bruce J. Terris

Attorney Bruce J. Terris contends in the following viewpoint that ethnic profiling can help protect Americans from future terrorist attacks. In Israel, Terris claims, officials interrogate individuals most likely to commit terrorist attacks—Arabs. He claims that implementing such a strategy in the United States would be far preferable to other procedures currently being used in U.S. airports, such as arbitrarily choosing those who will be interrogated, which is unlikely to catch real terrorists. Terris argues that government and media vigilance could guarantee that ethnic profiling would not violate anyone’s civil liberties.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How do the police use profiling, according to Terris?
2. In the author’s opinion, why do Ben Gurion airport security procedures take so little time?
3. In...