What did the Law of Suspects (1793) do to civil liberties?

• A. It authorized mass arrests of suspected enemies of the Revolution, severely restricting personal rights and enabling widespread executions
• B. It guaranteed habeas corpus and due process protections
• C. It granted universal suffrage to all male citizens
• D. It ended civilian trials and required only military tribunals

Answer: (A)

This question tests how the Law of Suspects altered personal rights during the Terror. The law defined who could be considered suspicious and gave authorities broad power to arrest and detain people on mere suspicion of opposing the Revolution. It effectively suspended many protections of due process, allowing arrests without specific charges and detaining people for long periods before they might be tried by revolutionary tribunals. Because it widened the net of who could be treated as an enemy, it enabled mass arrests and contributed to widespread executions, dramatically curtailing civil liberties.

This isn’t about guaranteeing habeas corpus or due process, which the law did not do. It also didn’t grant universal male suffrage, nor did it eliminate civilian trials in favor of exclusively military ones; instead, it relied on state-controlled revolutionary tribunals to prosecute the detained. The overall impact was a sharp expansion of state power at the expense of individual rights.