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. Recently, on January 1st of 2015 the Patriot Act has expired. Many members of government are stuck in a debate if it should be renewed. It should be reauthorized by Congress again as it already has been twice because it is approved and supported by the Constitution. Even though some argue that the Patriot Act infringes …show more content…
Before federal agents take surveillance and seize phone calls or records from a person they must first have a good reason or evidence to do so. This follows the idea of probable cause listed above. Next, before agents can seize anything they must issue a warrant and have it approved. This way they can’t just see anybody’s information that they want to. Here is a quote from a heritage.org writer on the Patriot Act’s constitutionality. “ No single provision of the Patriot Act has ever been found unconstitutional. This is a testament to the act’s limited applicability, procedural safeguards, and extensive oversight
For instance, the Act allows government interception of personal communication through wiretapping and other means. This enables the government to intercept communication among terrorism suspects. Law enforcers can also intercept personal communications of innocent citizens and non-citizens. However, patriot act supporters argue that electronic surveillance of people suspected to be a threat to national security has been in practice long before the patriot act. Secret hearings, warrants, and wiretapping have been around since 1978, based on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
However, The Patriots act in fact had a considerable number of pros more than cons. The Patriot's act has stopped many attacks since the law was put in place. No matter how much this regulation angered Americans it did more good than harm. Americans might not have completely agree with it nor one liked the idea of it, but it did protect the country and the citizens that reside in it. This law has been preventing hundreds of terrorist attacks for years.
The Patriot Act was a legislation that passed that allowed
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.
The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides, the ultimate goal of this provision is to protect people’s right of privacy and freedom from arbitrary governmental intrusions. And being searched. Good Thing
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.
The PATRIOT Act violates Fourth Amendment: the right to an unlaw search and seizure, and because phone records are recorded without the knowledge of any American it violates the amendment. By secretly recording all phone calls the civil rights of all Americans are being restricted and denied. The government is way over-stepping their boundaries with the PATRIOT Act. Civil rights are of the most importance to every American and it is not something the government has any obligation to intrude upon. The FBI and the NSA break the law by recording the phone calls.
The Fourth Amendment the Search and Seizure amendment was first passed by Congress on September 25, 1789 (National Constitution Center) that states the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures (National Constitution Center). For the first one hundred years after this amendment was This amendment of the Constitution has been used by both civilians and governmental officials as proof of why they believe an incident that occurred was fair, or unfair. However, there have been times when deciding the fairness or unfairness has not been crystal clear. For instance, the case of Tennessee v. Garner that was first argued on October 30, 1984, and later decided upon on March
The fourth amendment allows the NSA to conduct searches of phone records to find evidence of a crime. The NSA has recently went to Apple to try and access suspects phone records, although it requires a court order. Some of the most common requests for phone files are clues for robberies, kidnappings, and suicidal prevention. George Bush created the U.S. patriot act which allowed the government to better access telephone and communications. The NSA was also conducting wiretaps and surveillance.
Have you ever wondered why the Patriot Act played a big part in history or why it is so important to us? Well the government has compromised our civil liberties through the use of the Patriot Act. They also abused our privacy which wasn’t fair for us. The history of the Patriot Act, the abuse of our rights, and the way everything ended made the Americans feel like they couldn’t trust their government because they felt like they were always being watched. Through the Patriot Act, the law enforcement agencies and the government are given wide optional powers to acquire information not only from suspected people but also from the law-abiding Americans.
The Fourth Amendment affirms that "people are secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, no Warrants shall issue, describe the place to search, and the persons or things to be seized. " There should be a warrant for everything if what a person is being charged for is risking their rights as a U.S citizen. For example the privacy of a citizen is safe under the Fourth Amendment. Second, the property belonging to U.S citizens is secure from search and seizure without a warrant. Third, due to the Fourth Amendment, any citizen is safe from unfair arrests.
“...To explore details of the home that would previously have been unknowable without [going in], the surveillance is a search and is...unreasonable without a warrant” (Doc F). As the government searches homes they begin to forget about warrants and why they are needed. They also forget that there are only four reasons when they can search or seize in a situation. The four reasons are “ hot pursuit, public safety, danger of loss of evidence, permission of suspect” (Background Essay). These are some of the only reasons why law enforcements can search or seize without a warrant.
In 2008, President Bush signed into law The FISA Amendment Act, an act which allowed the government to monitor Americans’ electronic devices. Bush claimed that this Act could help save lives, as mentioned before, but what he did not mention is that this allows the government to conduct surveillance without probable cause. (“How the NSA’s Surveillance Procedures Threaten Americans’ Privacy.”) When people heard about this, they became concerned, and many began to question if the NSA would abuse this power.
One group that argues this is the American Civil Liberties Union, which strongly disagrees with the Patriot Act. They have stated that investigations into the Patriot Act, “reveal thousands of violations of law,” (ACLU), while this is simply not true. One controversial piece of the Patriot Act are roving wiretaps. These allow government investigators to follow and put surveillance on certain people, rather than certain devices, so that they may save time and effort. According to Nathan Sales, a law professor at George Mason University, “Federal courts agree that Title III’s roving wiretaps authority is constitutional and… provides strong support for constitutionality,” (Sales).
The Patriot Act allows for government investigators to share information on suspected terrorists with other branches of the government much easier than before 9/11 so that tragedy’s like this can be avoided in the future. While intense backlash has been received regarding the Patriot Act’s effects on immigration, and unlawful surveillance, the small negatives that have yet to been proven true much outweigh the good this law can do in protecting the lives of innocent Americans. With the Patriot Act countless lives have been saved without the masses without even realizing they have been saved. According to a speech given by President Bush three years after he signed the law into place, with the Patriot Act a one man terrorist plan turned into