The FBI’s inadequate response to far-right violence results from a lack of will, not a lack of legal authority
On 6 January, a mob including white supremacists and far-right militants stormed the US Capitol as lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s election victory. The attack followed mass shootings by white supremacists – like in El Paso in 2019 and a Pittsburgh synagogue the year before – and relatively unpoliced public violence by far-right militants at rallies across the country since Donald Trump’s election.
The Biden administration now seeks to turn the attention of the post-9/11 counterterrorism enterprise toward “domestic violent extremists”. But in making this shift, it is vital that we learn from our mistakes rather than simply repeating them. Already officials are headed down the same problematic path we took 20 years ago, considering proposals to expand counterterrorism authorities and using ideology as an indicator of potential violence.
Harsha Panduranga is a counsel with the Liberty & National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law
This essay is co-published with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law as part of a series exploring new approaches to national security 20 years after 9/11
