In the midst of potential war and terror many are worried of what the future holds. This is how the American people felt after the terrible terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The government had to think fast and make brash decisions to protect our country, and The Patriot Act (during the time) was the best solution. The Patriot Act was one of the fastest acts passed, many government officials were only thinking of the present, and ways to prevent foreign attack. The act has been edited several times over the years due to many mistakes of violating individual’s rights. What exactly is the act? The definition is “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required or Intercept …show more content…
The Supreme Court is different from other courts because it is the highest court in the United States. Other courts cannot appeal the Supreme Court’s decisions, because most of their cases are directly interpreting the constitution. That judicial branch can interpret the constitution how they want without conflict from the other two branches. They follow the basic rules of the constitution, and protect basic principles under judicial independence. When a case has to go all the way to the Supreme Court there is no doubt that it causes a problem with the constitution. This is what happened with Antoine Jones in the Supreme Court Case of The United States v. Antoine Jones. Jones was arrested for drug possession when police attached a tracker to his jeep without judicial approval and followed him for a month. Jones argued his conviction because it violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The Supreme Court’s ruling was delivered by Justice Scalia, and with a 5-4 split they decided this: "the Government 's installation of a GPS device on a target 's vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle 's movements, constitutes a 'search '" under the Fourth Amendment” (Scalia 5). This court case ties directly to the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act directly violates the fourth amendment because of it searches through American people’s private devices. The United States v. Antoine Jones had concurring opinions, disputes between other judges, and other complicated interpretations of the constitution. If this is how the justices are seeing the case with Jones shouldn’t they look at the government. Through the Patriot Act the government is doing this everyday, and there is nothing being done
The USA Patriot Act, also known as "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" was a rushed act passed 45 days after the devastating terrorist attack on the twin towers September 11th, 2001. It was composed with the intention of finding and prosecuting international terrorists on American soil, but consequently violated the constitution. In addition, the Patriot act allows surveillance on all emails, internet, and cell phones to try and catch terrorists. Regardless, the act ended up having more power than primarily planned as stated in the CNN debate on the patriot act. America was founded on the principle of individual liberties and the pursuit of happiness in the context
The Fourth Amendment: The 4th amendment provides protection in regards to the issuance of warrants sans probable cause and protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. This amendment implements the limit of law enforcement power to conduct searches, seize property, and make arrests. The 4th amendment however does permit searches and seizures when reasonable justification as to why the police need to conduct a search is established. If an individual believes to have a well-founded expectation of privacy of the location or material being searched, the 4th amendment will be upheld. The 4th amendment is classified as the most significant in terms of criminal justice due to the fact police do not violate the fourth amendment by making reasonable mistakes, however, intentional ignorance of the law is not excused.
Subsequent, to the September 11th,2001 terrorist attacks, the Department of Justice proposed The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act) to prevent future terroristic attacks. According to Preserving Life and Liberty article, the PATRIOT ACT has played an imperative part in “a number of successful operations to protect innocent Americans from plans of terrorist dedicated to destroying America and our way of life.” Further, Rosemary Jenks emphases in her article “A Summary of the Anti-Terrorism Law’s Immigration – Related Provision” that the PATRIOT Act focuses mainly on “reinforcing the arsenal of tools available to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and federal prosecutors for identifying and disabling terrorist networks operating both
The Patriot Act is unsafe, unconstitutional and should be banned from the United States of America. According to source, three president Bush created the Patriot Act in 2001. He signed off on the act after the tragedy of nine eleven to try and monitor terrorists in the United States. Although the act was created to try and keep the country safe, it also has caused several set backs. There are sources that oppose and support the Patriot Act; moreover, the act violates the individual privacy of citizens, can falsely charge innocent people, but can stop terrorism.
The act also increased security measures and provide safety to citizens. () Such as at the airport when the TSA picked up and you can not board a plan with a bottle of liquid or any bottle bigger than the travel size. I had to throw out a lot of shampoo bottles because I forgot about this, but it makes me feel safe that they catch it everytime. Having served in the military I have seen first hand how many terrorist they have caught by simply pretending to be one of Al-Qaeda or ISIS leaders so people with sensative military information would tell these people information believing they would gain money, power, or
The moment that the Twin Towers fell in New York, America became destined for change. In the wake of these attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 was quickly passed through congress, and signed by then-president, George W. Bush. The act itself gives the FBI and other government agencies the ability to do and use certain methods, many of which are already used by other law enforcement organizations, to help prevent future terrorist attacks. Since then, this piece of legislation has been the center of much debate and controversy. But, there is ample reason to believe that the Patriot Act is needed and effective.
In 2001 after the tragedy of 9/11 President George W. Bush passed the PATRIOT Act. The act is supposed to protect Americans from future terrorist attacks, but what it's actually doing is defying most principles this country was founded upon. Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act enables the FBI and the NSA to listen to the phone records of millions of Americans. Not only is the government invading the privacy of millions, but the way it's being done is illegal. The government is invading on the personal lives of people who have never been suspected of being a terrorist.
A week after the Septeber 11 attacks, the Bush administration proposed to the United States Congress the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001, introducing radical changes to combat money laundering that finance terrorist groups, give authority to agencies like FBI to gather domestic intelligence on potential terrorists and construct stricter judicial procedures for deporting suspected terrorists. The most important act passed by the US government was The PATRIOT Act, passed in October 2001, which gained strong support in both chambers. The PATRIOT Act mandated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provide criminal records to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and State Department officials during visa screening. Beginning of 2002,
Although there can be benefits to this act, the biggest argument from citizens is that it invades their privacy. This program can collect data from cell phones and other electronic devices unknowingly even if the owner of the information is not under suspicion for anything against the law. This goes against the part of the amendment where it states that a person is protected from unreasonable search and seizures because they are taking information without consent. With attention to these situations, it goes to show how although the Constitution is the United States governing law, it is not always followed correctly as it should
The USA PATRIOT Act violated many American civil rights and carried out many unnecessary searches of innocent Americans. It sacrifices civil liberties for government power. The USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act) was passed shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001. On September 11, 2001, a group of nineteen terrorists hijacked four passenger flights, under their control, they targeted a variety of US monuments.
The whole point of the Fourth Amendment is not to completely stop the police, because the amendment can be waived if an officer has a warrant, or a person’s consent. The Fourth Amendment states that generally a search or seizure is illegal unless there is a warrant, or special circumstances. Technically stating that a citizen is protected by the Fourth Amendment, until a government employee gets a warrant, and then they can invade a citizen’s privacy. Also people state that the FISA Court’s warrants are constitutional, but the NSA’s surveillance is unconstitutional. Even though people do not like the NSA’s surveillance, the NSA is legal because the FISA Court that the people did not mind makes it legal.
Have you ever wondered why the Patriot Act played a big part in history or why it is so important to us? Well the government has compromised our civil liberties through the use of the Patriot Act. They also abused our privacy which wasn’t fair for us. The history of the Patriot Act, the abuse of our rights, and the way everything ended made the Americans feel like they couldn’t trust their government because they felt like they were always being watched. Through the Patriot Act, the law enforcement agencies and the government are given wide optional powers to acquire information not only from suspected people but also from the law-abiding Americans.
The Patriot Act allows for government investigators to share information on suspected terrorists with other branches of the government much easier than before 9/11 so that tragedy’s like this can be avoided in the future. While intense backlash has been received regarding the Patriot Act’s effects on immigration, and unlawful surveillance, the small negatives that have yet to been proven true much outweigh the good this law can do in protecting the lives of innocent Americans. With the Patriot Act countless lives have been saved without the masses without even realizing they have been saved. According to a speech given by President Bush three years after he signed the law into place, with the Patriot Act a one man terrorist plan turned into
The Act was designed to preserve the safety of America from any other terrorist attacks and to not allow another ambush to happen within the United States. After the aggression which took place on September 11th, 2001, there was a great fear in the American people. The ratification of the Patriot Act was the government’s approach of trying to prevent any forms of terrorism in our country. Another positive that thing that came with the Patriot Act was the recognition of technology and how technology usage is growing at a rapid pace.
However, The Patriots act in fact had a considerable number of pros more than cons. The Patriot's act has stopped many attacks since the law was put in place. No matter how much this regulation angered Americans it did more good than harm. Americans might not have completely agree with it nor one liked the idea of it, but it did protect the country and the citizens that reside in it. This law has been preventing hundreds of terrorist attacks for years.