The USA PATRIOT Act (an acronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism), or Public Law 107-56(1), is a series of amendments made to existing statutes as well as some new statues that were presented with the apparent motive to be able to prevent future terrorist attacks. This bill was passed with astounding speed following the events of 9/11, when Al-Qaeda arranged for terrorists to hijack planes and crash them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, resulting in nearly 3000 deaths between the passengers of the planes, those inside the buildings destroyed, and firefighters and police officers who were killed during rescue efforts(2). The law was introduced in the House …show more content…
The First Amendment prevents Congress from passing laws that will abridge the freedom of speech. Since violence or illegal actions are not protected under the right to free expression, there have been many controversies regarding whether this Act violates the first Amendment or not (10) In the past two or three years, as the country has grown more wary of a never-ending war, growing more secure in the absence of terrorist attacks on home soil, and with recent events like Snowden’s leaks of NSA activities on Wikileaks, the pressure was finally enough to stop extending the USA PATRIOT act past its sundown clauses. On May 22, 2014, the USA PATRIOT Act was ended. Now, the USA FREEDOM Act is being positioned to take its place. (11) This act includes new, stricter requirements for when agencies can collect and retain communication and other “intangible” evidence under FISA, reforms procedures for collecting on persons outside the United States, requires more transparency and reporting on the part of the Director of National Intelligence and places a new Sunset Clause on the FREEDOM Act that will extend until December 31,