Vineyard residents have a unique op portunity next Thursday, July 28, to assess the state of civil liberties and justice in America as we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Two remarkable speakers — retiring federal judge Nancy Gertner, and national ACLU legal director Steve Shapiro — will discuss The Pursuit of Justice: Perspectives on Major Civil Liberties Issues from Two Sides of the Bench, as part of the ACLU of Massachusetts Roger Baldwin Summer Series at the Chilmark Community Center at 7 p.m.

Among the threats to civil liberties they will highlight is the FBI’s latest scheme to give FBI agents virtually unchecked power to monitor ordinary Americans — including those of us who engage in protected political speech.

Under new FBI operational guidelines — leaked to The New York Times last month — FBI agents are now authorized to infiltrate meetings of political groups and clubs simply to gather information about members, even without opening a formal investigation. In addition, the FBI has dropped the requirement that agents obtain higher-level approval before starting surveillance of elected officials, academics or members of the media. The new guidelines even lower the requirements for searching through the household trash of a target — or that person’s friends, family, and neighbors, on the theory that snooping through trash will help agents develop potential informants. I wish that were a joke.

Going forward, FBI agents also will have more leeway to peruse commercial and police databases to monitor the activities of ordinary Americans, despite the fact that these databases are notoriously inaccurate and those of us who might show up in them have no ability to review and correct misinformation they contain.

In short, it sounds as if we’re heading back to the bad old days of J. Edgar Hoover, when the FBI was infamous for spying on dissenters, suspected radicals, and civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

More recently, unchecked government surveillance has led to similar abuse. The ACLU in recent years has documented cases of FBI agents sharing confidential information with unauthorized outsiders, snooping on people out of sheer curiosity, and monitoring organizations engaged in protected First Amendment activities, such as the peace group the Raging Grannies. Here in Massachusetts, law enforcement officials got caught trolling for gossipy tidbits on local celebrities, including James Taylor, Matt Damon and Tom Brady.

Needless to say, this kind of domestic spying doesn’t make us safer. And as the news corporation scandal shows, surveillance in the digital age is a whole new ball game.

Agencies charged with protecting public safety need the leeway to do their jobs. But this does not mean operating above the law or in total secrecy. True public safety comes from a system of checks and balances, which is why the ACLU is calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to rein in the FBI and impose stronger safeguards on what the agency can do. You can add your voice here, at aclum.org/vineyard.

At the inauguration ceremony, the President of the United States takes an oath to defend the Constitution, not the nation. It’s time to remind our leaders that democracy exists only when we are both safe and free.

Carol Rose is executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. The Pursuit of Justice: Perspectives on Major Civil Liberties Issues from Two Sides of the Bench will be held at the Chilmark Community Center on July 28 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.