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Pros And Cons Of The USA Patriot Act

1198 Words5 Pages

After the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, the United States government reacted quickly and firmly with the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism). The purpose of this act was to prevent another terror attack of the same magnitude as the 9/11 attack, but some people believe this act encroaches too heavily on civil rights. The USA PATRIOT Act (Patriot Act) threatens liberty more than it hinders terrorism, goes against the Constitution, and needs to be modified so it doesn’t breach the Constitution.
The USA PATRIOT Act interferes with the liberties of companies and people in the United States while doing more to impact lawful Americans than terrorists. …show more content…

Prior to the Patriot act a search warrant was needed, after the Patriot Act a search warrant is no longer required for agents to employ surveillance “…when looking into the full range of terrorism-related crimes,” (Dept. of Justice). The Patriot Act allows federal officials to gather information for suspected terrorist activity without needing to have evidence. In addition to this, Howard Ball observed that in the seventh title of the Patriot Act information is able to be shared between federal, state, and local law enforcement (52). Banks and Tauber analyzed federal district court decisions on cases regarding the Patriot act and they found, “[T]hey [district courts] are not inclined to protect civil rights and liberties during times of domestic or international conflict.” They continue to note that judicial ideology does not affect the outcomes of these cases, that civil-libertarian interest groups make a deferential decision less likely, and that if a more conservative Senate and president are in power a deferential decision is more …show more content…

Legislation was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee that would allow roving wiretap powers in the Patriot Act for four more years (Is it legal?: PATRIOT Act vol. 59). A roving wiretap will be able to record the conversations of everyone in the area and is able to move. By reauthorizing roving wiretaps, it allows the recording of American citizens without their expressed permission. A court case where a U.S. District Court Judge named Richard Leon ruled that the NSA must stop collecting phone call data from a business network owned by J.J. Little and his law firm (Judge Issues Narrow Ruling in Challenge to USA PATRIOT Act). In the same article it is said that, “Leon previously said the bulk collection of phone records is likely unconstitutional.” The problem of the NSA collecting phone data and storing the information continued to be a problem over a decade after the Act was signed into law. “In a May 2015 decision, a federal appellate court found the aforementioned program to be illegal under the PATRIOT Act… Collecting massive records in a database for some ‘hypothetical future time’ was not relevant under the statute” (Pike USA PATRIOT Act Still Raising Questions). The Patriot Act allows the government to ignore the constitution when it comes to imprisonment of suspected terrorists and allows the government to spy on its

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In a world of continuous technological advancements, as a substantial advantage, the USA PATRIOT Act modernizes the law to recognize present-day threats and attacks. Based on reports by the Justice Department, prior to the introduction of the USA PATRIOT Act, some laws within the United States failed to account for modern-day technological advancements (Department of Justice, 2017). As an example, under the USA PATRIOT Act, government or law enforcement agencies are permitted to utilize advanced technological means to locate or identify individuals, if necessary. Furthermore, with technological advancements allowing for long-distance planning and attacks, contributors to the Congressional Digest report that the USA PATRIOT Act allows some officials

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Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the United States government to gather foreign intelligence information concerning persons located outside of the country that are, or are connected to, a potential threat against the nation. In addition to protecting national security, the communications data collected under Section 702 has been used for criminal prosecution in domestic court cases. Since it passed in 2008, scholars have raised questions over the act’s constitutionality, especially about its consistence with the Fourth Amendment which protects both US and non-US persons against unreasonable searches and seizures. These scholars argue that not all communications gathered under Section 702 meet the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment and should therefore not be used in criminal cases. However, Section 702 mainly conflicts with the Constitution only when the act is used inappropriately by agencies to investigate people residing within the US rather than for its intended purpose of gathering foreign intelligence.

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According to the Department of Justice, 2015, The USA Patriot Act, before the Patriot Act courts could permit law enforcement to conduct electronic surveillance to investigate many non- terrorism crimes such as passport fraud, mail fraud and drug crimes but after the act was passed it enabled investigators to gather information when looking into full range terrorist related crimes. The act also allows law enforcement to conduct investigations without tipping off terrorists in which if they are they could flee, destroy evidence, intimate or kill witnesses or take on another action to evade arrest. Therefore, federal courts allowed law enforcement to delay for a limited time when the subject is told that a judicially permitted search warrant has been executed but with this delay it gives law enforcement time to identify criminal associates, eliminate threats and synchronize the arrests of multiple individuals without having them knowing or have an idea the action will take place. The Patriot Act updated the law to reflect new technologies and new threats, it allows victims of computer hacking to demand law enforcement assistance in monitoring trespassers on their computers. Likewise, the act allows law enforcement to obtain a search warrant anywhere a terrorist related activity has occurred and before the act often terrorism investigations had a number of districts making police need to obtain multiple warrants in numerous jurisdictions creating avoidable delays in the investigation.

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