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Pros And Cons Of The USA Patriot Act

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The USA PATRIOT Act stands for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism." This bill was signed into law with little debate on October 26, 2001, only 45 days after the attacks that rocked our country. The vote in favor of the law was overwhelming and bi-partisan – 98 to 1 in the US Senate and 357 to 66 in the US House of Representatives. Yet, the bill was 342 pages long, and many members of Congress now say they did not even read it before voting in favor.

Author Steven Brill (2003) asserts in his book, After: Rebuilding and Defending America in the September 12 Era, that the version of the USA PATRIOT Act voted on by Congress was not the bill that had been approved in committee …show more content…

Rather, the law could possibly be a well-coordinated and long-planned effort by some in the Justice Department to tilt the scales so far in favor of law enforcement and intelligence agencies that civil liberties of Americans may be sacrificed as a result. Only time will tell if this is the …show more content…

I also lay out important realities of the law, including how it is being used, and examine whether the intrusions it imposes on American citizens are reasonable. I also discuss the backlash against the law. I conclude with a discussion on the likely future of the law and implications of the law for the criminal justice discipline. The main purpose of the paper is to thoroughly summarize and critically analyze the USA PATRIOT Act, for the benefit of those working in the discipline of criminal justice – who have, as of the current day largely ignored the law.The USA PATRIOT Act stands for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism." This bill was signed into law with little debate on October 26, 2001, only 45 days after the attacks that rocked our country. The vote in favor of the law was overwhelming and bi-partisan – 98 to 1 in the US Senate and 357 to 66 in the US House of Representatives. Yet, the bill was 342 pages long, and many members of Congress now say they did not even read it before voting in favor.

Author Steven Brill (2003) asserts in his book, After: Rebuilding and Defending America in the September 12 Era, that the version of the USA PATRIOT Act voted on by Congress was not the bill that had been approved in committee and that had been endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union

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The USA Patriot Act, also known as "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" was a rushed act passed 45 days after the devastating terrorist attack on the twin towers September 11th, 2001. It was composed with the intention of finding and prosecuting international terrorists on American soil, but consequently violated the constitution. In addition, the Patriot act allows surveillance on all emails, internet, and cell phones to try and catch terrorists. Regardless, the act ended up having more power than primarily planned as stated in the CNN debate on the patriot act. America was founded on the principle of individual liberties and the pursuit of happiness in the context

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The United States of America’s Patriot Act is a law or bill in place that is meant for our government to spy on terrorists. This Act is a very nice tool that the FBI, CIA, Army, and many other branches can use to track people. It came into effect after the September 11, 2001 attack on the twin towers. The USA Patriot Act includes information sharing, roving wiretaps, access to records, foreign intelligence, wiretaps and searches, “Sneak and Peek” warrants, and material support. Although there is plenty of people that do not support the Act it is very beneficial and goes through a couple of reforms every once and awhile.

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615 Words | 3 Pages

Introduction Signed into law on 26 October 2001, the US Patriot Act was meant to strengthen security controls and provide Americans with an opportunity to act in the defense of their freedom. Caused by the September 11 terrorist attacks, this rule was intended to help Americans protect themselves from future similar strikes. However, since its enactment 16 years ago, this legislation has provided a veil with which impunity and civil rights violators can hide behind as they perpetrate crime in the name of national security. The act augmented safety and intelligence agencies' powers to acquire confidential information.

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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.

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146 Words | 1 Pages

In conclusion, the USA Patriot Act has long enabled law enforcement to remain above the rules and regulations of the United States legislature. It has resulted in distrust of the American people towards their enforcing bureaucracy. The citizens of the United States have lost their civil rights and have been treated as criminals in penalty of an unknown crime. For too long, police have been able to abuse their power. The Patriot Act has destroyed the public opinion of law enforcement due to technological advances and information collection.

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216 Words | 1 Pages

The Patriot act when passed it was overlooked, rushed and it did hinder our rights and privacy, however at that time who was thinking about their right and privacy when such an act had just happened. I was in high school when the Patriot Act went into law and all I cared was to make sure that the people that planned the attack get what they deserved for killing so many Americans. Maybe, they waited for the time that the American people were vulnerable to pass the Patriot Act, because they knew it wasn’t going to get everyone’s attention. Now, that a lot of people know how the Patriot Act works and how it has been used, we the American people want it gone or to have a better supervision so that individuals with malicious intent wont misuse it

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855 Words | 4 Pages

These statistics not only make you question whether or not the Patriot Act is successfully completing its job, but it makes you wonder whether those suspected of regular crimes were rightfully convicted. Although the Patriot Act has played a

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522 Words | 3 Pages

The USA Patriot Act was signed into law on October 26, 2001, by President Bush. The USA Patriot Act is an acronym that stands for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act.” The theory behind the USA Patriot Act is to provide law enforcement with the “unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain and eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists (Orthmann & Hess, 2013). The USA Patriot Act was extended by President Obama signing a four-year extension of the Act.

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641 Words | 3 Pages

The PATRIOT Act is a defile of Americans civil rights and it needs to be ended. One main reason the PATRIOT Act needs to be stopped is that it's a huge invasion of privacy. Most Americans keep very sensitive and important information on phones, and it's likely that that information will be discussed over the phone where the government has access to anything said during these calls. The private lives of American citizens is not what the government should concern themselves with.

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598 Words | 3 Pages

The Patriot Act is a controversial government policy that directly goes against the 4th amendment and violates our right to privacy; this is clearly unconstitutional. This policy has continued to spark debates about privacy and government overreach in this Age of Intelligence. The Patriot Act was initially created after the events of 9/11/2001 when two planes hit the World Trade Center in New York. In response to this event, the United States government created the 'Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism', commonly known as the Patriot Act.

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WGI along with their partner circuits divide and classify their activities in order to suit the needs of competitors. WGI recognized the different interests that were not colorguard, which included of percussion and people who played wind instruments. Those activities were left out of the winter arts, so in 1992, WGI added indoor percussion and later, in 2014, added indoor marching ensemble (or Winds) to their competitive units. WGI considers winds the final extension of their organization and completes their support for the entire band program.

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647 Words | 3 Pages

The article "Patriot Act Protects Americans from Terrorism" explains the benefits of the act. One key area is it has removed obstacles to investigating terrorism and it has strengthened the criminal laws against terrorism. This is very important because if the governement didn't make these restrictions, there would be numerous terrorism attacks on the country. In the article "Fight the Patriot Act", it explains that the act violates the privacy of Americans because of the FBI and NSA collecting phone records of millions of people through the Patriot Act. The article is wrong because the cooperations are not violating privacy, they are simply working to prevent possible threats to Americans.

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451 Words | 2 Pages

Just 45 days after 9/11 the Patriot Act was hastily passed. The act is in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment that protects against unlawful search and seizure; it allows our government to spy on American citizen’s technology use without a warrant. The act was intended to protect against terrorism, but between 2003 and 2005 there were 143,074 National Security Letters that allowed the FBI to search through personal information without a warrant resulting in 53 criminal referrals, of which zero were terrorist threats (ACLU). I do believe in monitoring for terrorist threats , but we can’t let fear control our decisions. Our right to privacy is fundamental, and without reasonable cause no one should be monitored by the

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806 Words | 4 Pages

”(Kubic, 16). Americans will always have something to complain about to the government about the government but they are just trying to do what is best for the people. The PATRIOT Act is something that causes a lot of controversy but in the long run is there to protect the citizens even when those citizens don’t want

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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.

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