The USA PATRIOT Act

The government should have the right to investigate suspicious persons and their activities, but not to the fullest extent, and not outside of the realm of our constitution.  Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the Federal Bureau of Investigation would have the right to pre-emptively investigate suspicious persons by searching and seizing financials, records, and possessions, with no disclosure requirement.  This law was passed to combat terrorism after 9/11, and it certainly helps with that.  Within the act, domestic terrorism is defined as a crime, therefore making it far easier to prosecute and investigate terrorists.  Also, the process of investigation is streamlined through not requiring warrants to search and making it easier to access records, which is critical in time sensitive cases such as these.  Law enforcement also has the right to keep everything they are doing quiet, which is important for security reasons. 

However, as good as much of this seems for fighting terrorism, it is also impeding on our constitutional rights.  It violates our fourth amendment, which is safeguards us from unwarranted searches and seizures.  The lack of a requirement for a warrant or for alerting the suspect of a search clearly violates this right.  Because of this unaccountability, there is also a lot of room for unfair profiling.  For example, there was a lawsuit against the act filed by an assortment of ethnic and anti-discrimination groups who felt that they were being unfairly investigated.  This shows how the act can be abused.  The act is also in violation of our first amendment right: the freedom of speech.  The American people have a right to say what they want, whether it’s on the internet or elsewhere, so they shouldn’t be persecuted for it.  While the USA PATRIOT Act aims to protect us from terrorists, it encroaches on too many of our rights to be a just law.