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These include "books, letters, diaries, library records, medical and psychiatric records, financial information, membership lists of religious institutions, and even -- as Attorney General Ashcroft himself conceded in testimony before Congress -- genetic information" ("ACLU").
A real life example of how an innocent individual's civil rights can be so easily violated was presented by Jason Halperin's account, in his article Patriot Raid. Halperin had gone with his roommate to see the Broadway show Rent. Before heading to the musical, the two men decided to stop at a favorite Indian restaurant, in the heart of midtown New York, just off Times Square. They had just begun to eat dinner when five NYPD officers, in bulletproof vests, stormed into the restaurant, guns drawn and pointing at the customers and the restaurant staff.
Halperin further goes on to tell of how the police officers had all of the terrified patrons and staff go to the back of the restaurant, making the kitchen staff crawl out on their hands and knees. Everyone was patted down while ten more officers entered while some of the original officers searched the restaurant for other people in the facility. Two of the new officers approached Halperin and identified themselves as officers of the INS and Homeland Security Department.
When asked why he was being held, when he was just there to eat dinner, Halperin was told that they would be released after it was confirmed that he had no outstanding warrants and that his immigration status was OK'd.
These events seem to fly in the face of the Fourth Amendment that protects citizens...
However, thanks to the Patriot Act, the Fourth Amendment is now swept under the carpet, to be trampled on at will by law enforcement.
Conclusion:
With many of the most important pieces of the Patriot Act set to sunset at the end of 2005, many efforts have been undertaken to shore up support for this controversial piece of legislation (Lithwick & Turner). Certainly, the protection of the United States need to be of great concern. The agencies put in place to protect American citizens need the tools to complete their jobs effectively and efficiently. However, in so doing, the civil liberties of the American public, as well as the amendments of the Constitution, should not be trounced on, at will, by these agencies. Equilibrium needs to be met between protection of a nation and protection of the individual's rights, and regretfully, the Patriot Act does not fulfill that requirement.
References
ACLU Says Justice Dept.'s Patriot Act Website Creates New Myths About Controversial Law. 26 Aug 2003. ACLU. June 24, 2005 http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=13371&c=206.
Halperin, Jason. "Patriot Raid." AlterNet (29 Apr 2003). June 24, 2005 http://www.alternet.org/story/15770.
Lithwick, Dahlia & Turner, Julia. "A Guide to the Patriot Act, Part 1." MSN (8 Sept 2003). June 24, 2005 http://slate.msn.com/id/2087984/.
The Patriot Act. 20 Jun 2005. Wikipedia.org. June 24, 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Patriot_Act.
Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism is the extended terminology that refers to the U.S.A. Patriot Act which, following the events of 9/11 was passed by the Senate immediately and almost unanimously. When the Pentagon and the World Trade Center were attacked in 2001, concerns over national security and America's susceptibility to terrorist threats emerged more so as the country remained baffled
The effect is that exclusion is not only applied to those who would hurt the government but also to those that would uphold the same. The Patriot Act provides facilitation of shared information as well as cooperation between agencies of the government in order for all the pieces of the puzzle to fit together. The Act moves aside the barriers that have Constitutionally speaking prevented the police, intelligence as well
This change is likely to come about as lawmakers realize how their skirting of Constitutional protections for one area they are in favor of can easily be applied to other areas once the door is opened for working outside the appropriate framework. Bibliography Edgar, T.H., (2003, February 14). Section-by-section analysis of Justice Department draft "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003," also known as "Patriot Act II." ACLU. http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/17203leg20030214.html Lithwick, D. And Turner,
However the disclaimers of USA Patriot Act agree on the necessity of protecting the nation and the world against terrorism, they also emphasize on the need to further analyze and change the act so that it does protect the individual liberties of the U.S. citizens and respects the provisions in the American constitution. 5. Discussion The question that has been asked by many simple individuals relies in the true agenda of the
USA PATRIOT Act: Discussion Questions The USA PATRIOT Act, as the Department of Justice (2014) points out was enacted by Congress with an aim of equipping those charged with the enhancement of law and order with new tools to not only combat but also prevent acts of terror. An acronym, the PATRIOT Act, in the words of Ronczkowski (2006, p. 64), is "formally known as the Uniting and Strengthening America by
Patriot Act The U.S.A. Patriot Act was passed because of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. We realized that our current body of laws did not completely address the task of finding terrorists before they take action. The Patriot Act was passed to make it easier for us to protect ourselves from future terrorist acts. The Act has been controversial because although most people recognize the