It has been said that the fundamental obligation of governmentof any governmentis to protect its citizens. Plus, democratic governments have an additional obligation: to balance security concerns with civil liberties. This seems quite sensible to me, however, in our republican form of government with federal and state entities, which government or governments are responsible? The notion that the federal government should dictate the homeland security dialogue is widely accepted.However, does this interfere with states' rights and the 10th Amendment?