ipl-logo

Pros And Cons Of The Patriot Act

1711 Words7 Pages

The Patriot Act (the full name is the USA Patriot Act, or "Uniting and Strengthening America Act by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001") was signed on October 26 by the former U.S. President George W. Bush in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11. The main purposes are to improve the level of domestic security and to strengthen the powers of law-enforcement agencies in terms of identifying and eliminating terrorists. The US government and its supporters believe that it is one of the most useful tools to investigate and arrest terrorists within and outside the borders of the country. However, critics argue about Acts “overpower” which treats the civilians in non-democratic way and …show more content…

But Why? The reason is that other articles are controversial and usually are widely criticized.
The first thing, which should be mentioned, is obviously how the Patriot Act passed so quickly. It was shorter than 48 hours between the presentation of the bill and its passing in both houses of Congress. Critics are still arguing that such “powerful” Bill had to be debated and deliberated.
Secondly, it is also considered that Patriot Act violates the constitutional civil liberties of the United States, especially: right to privacy, freedom from unreasonable searches, conducting wiretaps, using NSLs, search the private property without any notification and detain a material witness or a suspect with no access to lawyer. There are many evidences when the law was used inappropriate towards non-terrorist criminals. New York Times writes: “The Bush administration, which calls the USA Patriot Act perhaps its most essential tool in fighting terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency in many criminal investigations that have little or no connection to terrorism.” This article shows that the government started to use “new” authority under the Patriot Act to investigate cases on drug trafficking, money laundries, blackmailers and child pornography. Justice Department arguments their position …show more content…

In many of these cases, the agents, without any authorization, forced the internet providers and communication companies to give the information. Moreover, FBI agents could use the Patriot Act “guise” for their own

Show More
Related
562 Words | 3 Pages

Requiring sixty senators to end debate, this forethought allows senators to point out flawed legislation and debate possible complications. Further review may circumvent the issues of unpopular laws. The Patriot Act was passed quickly by congress in the wake of terrorist attacks. Although opposed by a minority of senators, the bill was quickly passed by Congress and approved by the President. Despite the perceived necessity, the bill was widely criticized by the American people and later revised.

Read More
518 Words | 3 Pages

10/26/01 Patriot act signed into law. The Patriot act allows the US government to spy on people.

Read More
567 Words | 3 Pages

The Patriot Act is one of today’s most controversial laws. The law’s official name is the USA PATRIOT Act, which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. The law was passed in 2001 after the September Eleventh terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The act greatly increased the power of the government in preventing terrorism, but it also increased the amount of surveillance that the government performs on citizens.

Read More
953 Words | 4 Pages

The moment that the Twin Towers fell in New York, America became destined for change. In the wake of these attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 was quickly passed through congress, and signed by then-president, George W. Bush. The act itself gives the FBI and other government agencies the ability to do and use certain methods, many of which are already used by other law enforcement organizations, to help prevent future terrorist attacks. Since then, this piece of legislation has been the center of much debate and controversy. But, there is ample reason to believe that the Patriot Act is needed and effective.

Read More
748 Words | 3 Pages

Now in today’s standards, you only have freedom of semi-privacy that the Patriot Act believes is non-threatening. By them monitoring your texts, emails, history along with things you look for in search engines you never truly free to say anything or look up anything you want. Also what followed after this act were the random abductions of people. They take the “random,” person and ship them to another country to loophole their laws of not permitting torturing someone in this country. Instead they hire other countries to do their dirty work.

Read More
435 Words | 2 Pages

The opposition suggests that the USA Patriot Act grinds down several elements in the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment, the freedom of speech and assembly, is violated because it restricts our speech, albeit, indirectly but it is still restricted. People are losing the right to say what they feel and they have to be careful with their words when discussing politics or the government because they can be prosecuted for saying what they think. The Fourth Amendment, the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, is violated because the Patriot Act does not require a probable cause or a warrant to search through someone's data and personal information and with the Patriot Act, the victim does not need to be informed this search is happening.

Read More
852 Words | 4 Pages

The Patriot Act was created in response of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. The USA Patriot Act was passed by the United States Government and signed by former President George on October 26, 2001. The Act was passed around in many areas in House of Congress and was supported by the both Republican and Democratic parties. (Jenks) In the year of this law being processed there was huge discussions regarding the pros and cons of this bill.

Read More
419 Words | 2 Pages

The USA Patriot Act was signed into law on Oct. 26, 2001, due to the need for cooperation among all levels of security. Police and other department agencies were given powerful authority and encouraged to share information. This is to meet the goal for a safer America in times of turmoil including international affairs. But as the years have passed and as terrorist attacks seem to cease, people have begun to question if there’s too many restrictions on law enforcement were called off.

Read More
147 Words | 1 Pages

I am in favor of the patriot ACT. I know many people think, it is kind of violation of the privacy, but the patriot ACT make the U.S. a better place to live. There are countries, which try to do some damage to the U.S., and they will do anything to accomplish it. The patriot ACT made it easier for the law enforcement whenever they needed to arrest someone, whether is a drug dealer, a terror organization or someone who tries to make some damages through technology. These acts can have huge impact on the people and the society, law enforcement should act faster than the enemies in order to get them before they get what they want.

Read More
1691 Words | 7 Pages

NSA hides the fact that they are monitoring on US citizens without the warrant as they find some connection between the person monitored and some illegal activity to justify their monitoring. At first, after the 9/11, President George W. Bush started a program of mass monitoring of US communication. He had started it without FISA Court’s knowledge and when the population find out about this Congress had to create and enact the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 and inside was the crucial Section 702 that, by law, validates mass monitoring over the last 7 years. These communication monitoring systems rely on these two statutes: FISA Amendment Act of 2008 (Section 702) and Patriot Act (Section 215).

Read More
651 Words | 3 Pages

On September 11th, 2001, tragedy struck America. A terrorist attack was carried out resulting in 2,753 Americans killed. America became locked in a war, and it needed more security on its own soil. So, congress passed a law known as the Patriot Act. This allowed the N.S.A (national security agency) to gain information of individual citizens or groups of individuals by using library records, phone calls and other surveillance.

Read More
821 Words | 4 Pages

“At least 42 terrorist attacks aimed at the United States have been thwarted since 9/11” (Reality). The majority of people know about the tragedy that happened on September 11th, 2001, but not that many people know about what came to be after the event; the Patriot Act. This act is the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001” (Miller). The Patriot Act got put in place by the President and almost got a unanimous vote to pass it nearly ten days after. It was later used to take down many of the 42 attack plots.

Read More
98 Words | 1 Pages

4. Abuse of the Patriot Act— Several provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire at the end of 2005 and, despite opposition from across the political spectrum and more than 400 community and state resolutions expressing concern about the Patriot Act, Congress reauthorized the law without reforming its most flawed provisions to bring these extraordinary powers back in line with the Constitution. Since then, the Justice Department 's Inspector General found that the FBI has issued hundreds of thousands of national security letters, a majority against U.S. persons, and many without any connection to terrorism at

Read More
747 Words | 3 Pages

Patriot Act also happened within a hundred year span of everything else. The U.S. Patriot Act was passed for multiple reasons. Those reasons being that the citizens would feel safer with 9/11 just happening; and the other is that they predicted more restricted freedoms in the near future. President George W. Bush stated that the U.S. Patriot Act would also help law enforcement officials. One way is that it gives the opportunity to operate, not on separate tracks, but so they can share very crucial information on terrorist attacks before they have the chance to occur.

Read More
1030 Words | 5 Pages

population about this policy are controversial and have been hot topics in the news ever since. Lastly, the fallout after 9/11 associating with the USA PATRIOT Act has brought Americans to become suspicious of their own government. They were completely unaware of the FBI’s database meant to spy on them and gather exceptionally personal information. The amount of focus people have placed upon their leaders has made the country more lawful and

Read More

More about Pros And Cons Of The Patriot Act

Related Topics

Open Document