The PATRIOT Act: Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism

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Recommended: Impact of 9/11 on the US

No one will ever forget the tragic events that happened on September 11th 2001. The largest act of terrorism on citizens this country has ever seen. The next month Congress passed The USA PATRIOT ACT, a clever acronym for Uniting and Strengthening of America through Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. This act, designed to halt terrorism, gives the government more power than the constitution provides. No one should bear the power to spy on you, hold you without trial, deny you of free speech, to enter your home; this is a violation of American liberties and the constitution. Benjamin Franklin once said “Those who are willing to sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither”. That is why the giving up of our rights to help the “National security” of our country was wrong, and is why the PATRIOT Act is unconstitutional, and needs to be repealed. The PATRIOT Act is a bill passed to help law enforcement agencies locate, gather evidence on, apprehend terrorists, but it has been used for much more than it was originally made for, and allows the government to go beyond the boundaries the constitution sets for them. A single example of this is Section 201, which gives the United States government the authority to intercept Electronic, oral, and wire communications without a warrant, and it give the government the authority to demand these records from anyone who holds them. Since the PATRIOT Act as began there as been around 5,000 known cases of wire taping justified by preventing terrorism, but in almost all of the cases they were used in there was no terrorist activity, nothing to do with national security at all. The government was just checking up on “High-risk” citizens. There are some who say t... ... middle of paper ... ... Endangers Rights." FOX NEWS(11,September,2003): n. pag. Web. 2 May 2011. . Cosgrove-Mather, Bootie. "Poll: U.S. Uneasy With Patriot Act." CBS NEWS (20,APRIL,2009): n. pag. Web. 2 May 2011. . Abramson, Larry, and Maria Godoy. "The Patriot Act: Key Controversies." NPR (16,December,2005): n. pag. Web. 2 May 2011. . Mayfield , Brandon . "Patriot Act Victim Speaks Out on Spy Bill." ACLU (14,November,2007): n. pag. Web. 2 May 2011. Berman, Ma, ACLU, . "ACLU Fact Sheet on PATRIOT Act II."ACLU (28,March,2003): n. pag. Web. 2 May 2011. .

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