Research Paper On USA Patriot Act
The Act of Congress of my choice will be the public law 107-56 better known as USA Patriot Act. The name USA Patriot Act is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. Since this is a long name I will be referring to this act by its acronym which it’s generally better known as anyway.
This law was put into effect after the 4 terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda on the 2 buildings of the World Trade Center complex, the Pentagon and the foiled attack on the United States Capitol. These attacks were the final push that the USA Patriot Act needed to get approved. The intend of this Act was and still is to secure the United States of America better against terrorist threats from both national and international dangers.
I choose this specifically because it’s referenced in many of my criminal justice books making me believe that it’s one of the most important Acts of Congress on so many levels that have been passed, and I know the most about it as a result of this. The USA Patriot Act is a highly influential act that significantly impacted the lives of Americans even if they don’t realize it directly in their immediate surroundings and personal lives.
This paper will go deeper into the USA Patriot Act by talking about its policy in more detail as well as how it affects modern society as a whole. Lastly I will discuss any potential reforms to the Act I deem necessary, if there are any changes I like to see at all. I hope that by the end of this paper you better understand the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 and will be less skeptical of it.
The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 has gone through quite some developmental changes since its inception 18 years ago. As we will see in the next paragraph 9/11 played a big part in the creation of the USA Patriot Act but it’s certainly not the only thing that influenced it. The United States of America has always been on the lookout for foreign threats since, as a big superpower as we are, we attract much attention from individuals and groups who feel threatened by our mere presence. This doesn’t only apply to attacks from enemies (like in WW2) or terrorism from both foreign and domestic dangers (think of the Oklahoma City bombing), but also includes economic threats and more recent phenomena like cyber attacks. Nevertheless the horrible events that occurred in 2001 were the straw that broke the camels back, making way for a bill that could do what none other has done before. Heavily penetrate inside the lives of American citizens to safeguard their wellbeing.
An article by Brian Duignan on Encyclopædia Britannica gives a good explanation on how this law came into fruition. After the horrible terrorist attacks on September 11, we didn’t bow our heads down in defeat. On the contrary actually since it ignited a fire in us to fight back and prevent future disasters like this. In a way you could say it had a similar effect as the attack on Pearl Harbor. Not long after the attacks on 9/11 the United States Congress went to work on a bill which was proposed by the Cabinet of the President at that time, George W. Bush. At this point in time the bill was just still called the Uniting and Strengthening America (USA) Act. The Senate passed its version of the bill on October 11 and the House of Representatives passed theirs on October 12. Unfortunately the bicameral legislature of the United States Congress requires for a bill to be passed in both chambers that is exactly the same. Since this was a pressing matter the House of Representation quickly passed a new bill (the USA Patriot Act) on October 24 which included some compromises it made with the Senate. On October 25 the bill was accepted by the Senate as well without any hesitation. The bill was sent to the White House where George W. Bush ratified it the next day on October 26.
The USA Patriot Act went through a few policy changes and hurdles along the way in it’s almost 2 decade long run. It had an expiration date, often known as a sunset date, on June 2005 but got delayed twice a new updated version was being discussed in the conference committee of the United States Congress.
Eventually a new version was ratified by the current President which permanently secured 14 provisions and prolonged 2 more. The new sunset date for those 2 was December 2009. Upon the new expiration date and the change in leader of the Executive branch, there were serious discussions about this act. Many tried to stop it from being signed into law again so it got extended multiple times again until a compromise was made. Since the USA Patriot Act was too important to let go off this easily the United States Congress and the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, signed a law called the Patriot Sunset Extension Act of 2011 on may 26, 2011 that extended the provisions that were about the expire to June 1, 2015. When this next date approached the decision was made to not extend those parts of the USA Patriot Act any longer. On the next day, Barack Obama ratified a new law called the USA Freedom Act which partially replaced the USA Patriot Act as this new act incorporated many provisions of the former that expired although revised to a great degree. This was mainly done due to several controversies (more on that later) which made the USA Patriot Act unfavorable among the general public. One famous revision was the collection of phone data which got much media coverage. With the new USA Freedom Act the government is more restricted in accessing those records of civilians.
As I’m writing this paper there haven’t been made any more changes to this specific act. The best way to summarize and explain how the USA Patriot Act works is by simplifying it to one sentence: Protecting America against terrorism of any shape or form. To go more in depth on what it entails we have to split it up in it’s 10 core parts. First we had an increase in funding for security assets such as the FBI. Second there were enhanced surveillance procedures which can include a wide range of things. From a better cooperation between law enforcement agencies all the way to data collection from phones, etc. although this is dialed back a little by the passage of the USA Freedom Act. This surveillance part flows perfectly into our third part which used the financial part of the collected data to scan for money laundering and other monetary transactions that could be related to terrorist activities. Fourth, the act would bring about a better monitoring of immigrants and strengthen the protection of our borders. In the fifth part it made it easier to investigate terrorist suspects by expanding the jurisdiction of many agencies to encourage collaborations between them. Its sixth part increased and sets up funds for victims of terrorist attacks and their families. The seventh one is again a provision that increased the sharing capabilities of information but this time it’s about regional information to protect our infrastructure. In the eighth part it made new laws and toughen existing laws related to terrorism. The ninth part improved intelligence once more but mainly for the CIA and included intelligence on an international level. The final tenth part of the act stated various smaller miscellaneous provisions.
The USA Patriot Act is implemented by an enormous amount of agencies across America. Federal, state and local agencies all make up the wide gamut that utilize the provisions of this act but at its very top is the Department of Justice who oversees this law. When it comes to changes in the federal budget there weren’t any noteworthy ones that could have been appointed to the USA Patriot Act, granted that even a “small” amount is only relative since even a small percentage can easily add up to millions of dollars, but it did enable big changes in departmental policies. One thing that is clear is that it did benefit the United States despite the fact there aren’t any official numbers for it. Depending on whether you ask a defender or critic it still shows that the USA Patriot Act stopped at least some threats. Even if it didn’t stop any, the absence of terrorist attacks after 9/11 shows that the act didn’t fail either. It potentially didn’t actively contribute to this absence (despite the hard work of the ones involved) though its mere existence did, albeit in a passive way.
Not much can be said about the defenders of the law. All they want is to safeguard the United States of America at any cost so having the USA Patriot Act is just a welcome addition. Its critics on the other hand claim that this act is unconstitutional and infringes on the basic foundation America was built on which is freedom. Their voices were heard as some of the provisions were revised because they mainly violated the Fourth Amendment’s right to privacy. Some of such revisions were done by the passage of the aforementioned USA Freedom Act.
In my opinion we shouldn’t change anything about the USA Patriot Act. If it were solely up to me I would even give authorities more freedom to do what they want but this wouldn’t be appreciated, that’s why I suggest we leave it as it is. One of the biggest criticisms is warrantless searches which many believe to count as an unreasonable search but to me that’s more than reasonable if it’s truly believed to be a terrorist suspect no in those situations there’s no time to lose. The USA Patriot Act was created during one of the blackest days in recent American history. Ever since its inception the law sparked countless debates over privacy concerns because of how intrusive the act is in peoples’ lives. While most of the provisions go unnoticed in the daily lives of Americans, I do hope that people can accept it some day or at least live with it without too many objections. After all it’s for their own protection.
