Patriot Act Dbq

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We live in a world where the government can listen to phone calls, monitor every move, and read everyone's emails. The Patriot Act is a U.S. law that allows the government to stop terrorist attacks. The Patriot Act was enacted on October 26, 2001, just 45 days after the 9/11 terrorist attack. Despite various arguments that the Patriot Act stands to protect American lives, we stand opposed to the Patriot Act because it is an invasion of privacy & is unconstitutional. First of all, I am opposed to the Patriot Act because it is an intrusion on privacy. For example, “The NSA and FBI use the Patriot Act to collect the phone records of millions of people who have never even been suspected or accused of a crime” (Source 2). This is an invasion of …show more content…
The Patriot Act is an invasion of American citizens' lives. Secondly, I am against the Patriot Act because it is unconstitutional, disrupting the basic rights of American citizens. For instance “Parts of the Patriot Act were re-interpreted in complete secrecy to allow the surveillance of everyone without suspicion” (Source 2). The Patriot Act violates the Fifth Amendment because it states that laws must be open and applied reasonably. When the Patriot Act was re-interpreted for broad surveillance, it breached this. The Patriot Act also breaches the Fourth Amendment, “In addition, this provision authorizes the equivalent of a blank warrant: the court issues the order, and the law enforcement agent fills in the places to be searched” (ACLU). This shows that the Patriot Act is unlawful because it allows the specifics to be filled in later. Therefore, the Patriot Act is unconstitutional to U.S. citizens. On the other hand, some people believe that the Patriot Act is helpful to the U.S. These people think that “The Patriot Act is one of the most significant tools Congress has given to law enforcement to combat the people that want to kill Americans on U.S. soil” (Source
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