Patriot Act: Protection or Provocation? Essay

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It loosened the regulations needed to tap into conversations of suspect individuals, allowing the government to ease drop with much more ease. The act also allowed for greater freedom in collecting intelligence over seas and lesser restrictions on detaining suspects and deporting foreign nationals deemed to be dangerous by the U.S. government (Lithwick 2003). This allowed much greater power on the behalf of the federal government to detain suspicious individuals without charging them right away. Along with this, it also helped increase the deportation power of the government within a wide variety of cases.

Such new found freedoms of the reign of the federal government as established through the provisions of the Patriot Act insurrected great controversy within the minds of citizens all across the country. Many citizens believe the patriot Act to be a direct infringement on the civil liberties of American citizens (Americans Civil Liberties Union 2003). It takes away the freedom of privacy which was a founding element in the legal system of the United States for so long. Others state that the provisions within the act itself are overly broad and therefore dangerous in its applications. It gives too few people too much power -- placing our government at risk for being manipulated by a few elite individuals within such secretive regimes as the Bush administration was. It also limited the provisions of the First Amendment in the concept that speaking one's mind would potentially lead to unfounded harassment by the U.S. government under the overly broad provisions of the Patriot Act. Many within the United States were concerned with its adoption in 2001. This concern grew to full fledged contempt in the mind of many Americans as the government continued to flex its new found muscles in the years proceeding its initial enactment in 2001.

After the horrors witness on September 11, 2001 most Americans did want to feel safer in their daily lives.

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The government's answer to this was the increased power it received through the enactment of the Patriot Act in 2001 with strengthened its powers of control and terrorist deterrence within American policy and affairs. Yet, this newly established heightened control made many citizens weary of the infringement of government policy of their basic civil rights. In fact, it was this growing discontent which led the act to grow out of public favor. As the Bush administration continued to blatantly disregard civil liberties in the United States, the controversy that centered around acts like the Patriot Act began to settle on the administration itself. Fed up with the policies of the Bush administration, the American people made a drastic and historic event with the election of new president Barack Obama.

American Civil Liberties Union. (2003). USA Patriot Act. ACLU.org. Retrieved April 11

2009 from http://www.aclu.org/safefree/resources/17343res20031114.html.

Public Law 107-56. (2001). Uniting and strengthening American by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism (USA Patriot Act)

act of 2001. 107th Congress. Retrieved April 11, 2009 from http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-

bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ056.107.

Lithwick, Dhalia. (2003). A guide to the Patriot Act, part 1. Slate. Retrieved April 11,….....

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