The Patriot Act - Essay Example

As Nunberg (2005) points out, the title of the Patriot Act alone represents a carefully crafted piece of legislation and practically it meant to impact the American audience to associate this new law with various positive attributes connected to patriotism. From the legislative perspective, the Patriot Act changes expand, or adds to many existing laws. It normatively expands the power of the presidency, changed the regulations required for gaining permission to use surveillance, altered the regulations required for gaining a warrant, and made it significantly easier for law enforcement agencies to subpoena personal records from a variety of sources (H.R. 3162, 2001).

For instance, the Intelligence Authorization Act for 2004 granted the FBI authority to obtain financial records from various institutions without obtaining a court order. Authorized by Section 2709 (c) of the U. S. A. Patriot Act, the process becomes remarkably simple: the so-called National Security Letter (NSL) is drafted by an FBI field agent and accompanied by his claim that the information sought is relevant to a National security investigation. Virtually unlimited in scope and authority, the letters granted FBI agents authority to retrieve and examine whatever records they felt were pertinent to an investigation.

There was no court involvement; there was no oversight; and, the agent held all authority necessary for the process to go forward. The letters had been served on banks, internet service providers, financial institutions, and even libraries (Romero, 2007, p.10). The Patriot Act is a vivid example of emergency legislation, which according to Mitrano (2003) constitutes “actions taken on the part of the federal government to address what is perceived as extraordinary circumstances that threaten national security” (par.1).The enactment of the Patriot Act generated a wide public and scholarly debate regarding this legislation.

For instance, Matthew Purdy (2001) in his article “Bush’s new rules to fight terrorism transform the legal landscape,” explores the effect of the new laws, including the Patriot Act, on the legal landscape. In the article, Purdy (2001) examines how the rhetoric of Bush, and the administration as a whole, seemed to reflect concern that America’s laws had been inadequate to identify and stop foreign criminals living within the U.S. borders from committing terrorism. Purdy(2001) also explores the Patriot Act more directly, examining the far-reaching ramifications of the law and suggesting there may be cause for concern due to the vague definitions used to describe terms such as .

terrorist activity and reasonable ground. Simultaneously, Dana Milbank (2001) indicates in the reputable Washington Post that because of the Patriot Act the President received carte blanche, and suggests that with Bush receiving a 90% approval rating, the public and Congress seem[ed] content for Bush to assume as much power as he desires [d]” (p. A1). Providing expertise on the Patriot Act from the legal perspective, Philip Heymann (2002) in Harvard Law Journal examined the balance of civil rights liberties, human rights, and limits on them in times of crisis and the Patriot Act.

In his analysis, Heymann (2002) concluded that:No one can speak for all Americans in deciding the trade-offs between equal protection of the laws, privacy, and fearless exercise of democratic freedoms…the gravest danger to civil liberties.is that leaders will think [the American people] are without courage (p.455).Heymann’s observations prove useful in explaining how the Patriot Act was presented and enacted as preserving civil liberties, while in fact the law significantly limits those rights.