USA Patriot Act - Essay Example

USA Patriot Act: Violation of Civil Liberties Under the Bush administration, the U.S. Patriotic Act was passed granting the government permission to investigate, survey, scrutinize, and share information in regards to national security without restriction. This gives the government power to monitor Internet usage and to make adequate communication between relevant agencies, for example. It also extends to what people read in libraries and book stores, what people look at or even purchase (Colorado.

edu par 2-4). The US Patriot Act gives the government more power in four key areas (American Civil Liberation Union par 3). Section 215 gives the government power to look and search records of an individual’s activities that are in the hands of a third party. The act also grants the government powers to do secret searches. This also includes searching of private property without notices in accordance with section 213. The search also extends to collecting of foreign information for intelligence purposes as the act narrowly expands the fourth amendment under section 218.

The expansion of the fourth amendment is further done in section 214 to include trap and trace search. This allows spying as it collects origin and destination of information and not just the content (American Civil Liberation Union par 5). The outcome of this is that the government has uncontrolled power to search through individual records. It no longer shows any evidence that the subject is an agent of a foreign power. The FBI no longer shows any substantial reason for surveillance, that the records are crime related.

The claimed judicial oversight is basically nonexistent as all the government has to do is certify to a judge. The person subjected to search is prohibited from revealing it to anybody (American Civil Liberation Union par 7).The act goes against the spirit of constitution in many ways, especially section 215. It is a clear violation of the fourth amendment in two ways which states that the government has no power to conduct a search without a warrant or showing reason as to believe the subject is involved in or will be involved in crime.

It also fails to provide notices to the person whose privacy has been trespassed. It also violates the first amendment that guarantees freedom of speech, yet the subject cannot another about the search. It further guarantees search by FBI on Americans based on their speech (American Civil Liberation Union par 8). The USA Patriot Act is a violation of civil liberty, first it gives the government power to conduct search and spy on individuals at will. Yet the power wielded is unchecked and without control.

Worse more it goes against the constitution by going against both the first and the forth amendments. Works citedAmerican Civil Liberation Union. Surveillance Under The USA Patriot Act. Because freedom can’t Protect itself. December 10, 2010. Web. July 18, 2014 https://www.aclu.org/national-security/surveillance-under-usa-patriot-act Colorado.edu Civil Freedoms and Patriot Act. n.d. web. July 18, 2014 http://www.colorado.edu/PWR/courses/wrtg1150-001/alena/position.html