USA Patriot Act

A Scrutiny of the US Patriot Act : Summary and Overview

The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 , otherwise known as the US Patriot Act , was enforced into law on October 26 , 2001 via Public Law No . 107-56 . The law was ratified and signed by President George W . Bush after it was passed in the House of Representatives with a majority vote of 357-66 , as well as in the Senate with a vote of 98-1

The US Patriot Act was introduced less than a

week after the September 11 , 2001 bombings . The main objectives and directives stipulated in the law include the `broad expansion of US law enforcement 's surveillance and investigative powers , and the amendment of more than 15 statues including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA , the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA , the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA , and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA (American Library Association , [ALA]

.1 ' These essentially and technically include the intent to `update wiretap and surveillance laws for the Internet Age , addressing real-time communications and stored communications , and to give law enforcement greater authority to conduct searches of property (Ibid ,

.3

The US Patriot Act was passed to further empower law enforcement and intelligence agencies in their task of investigating acts of terrorism It has sections specifically assigned to address money laundering immigration , as well as provisions concerning victims of terroristic acts . With more than 300 pages divided into 10 segments /titles , the US Patriot Act remains a comprehensive and complicated law , especially if compared and contrasted to previous and other existing laws devoted to combatting terrorism

Title I : Enhancing Domestice Security Against Terrorism is perhaps the most uncontroversial segment of the law . It basically allows for the setting up of a counter-terrorism fund and crime task forces , as well as the increase in the president 's ability to confiscate or sanction property belonging to a foreign person , country or organization (Washburne , Esq ,

.5 . Title II : Enhanced Surveillance Procedures , on the other hand , has been cause for much debate on the merits and demerits of the law . The general criticisms are the reduction of judicial powers to monitor surveillance (Ibid ,

.6 ) and that the increase in investigative powers granted to intelligence agencies may be used to violate the right to privacy which is otherwise protected under normal criminal procedures . To better understand this critique , it is imperative to be knowledgeable of an overview of existing surveillance laws

Federal communications privacy law , for instance , works under a system established for the dual purpose of `protecting the confidentiality of private telephone , face-to-face , and computer communications ' while allowing authorities to identify , tap and /or intercept communications if necessary (Doyle ,

.2 . Furthermore , US law provides that for any of these surveillance tools to be utilized in any criminal investigation , a court should first be secured . In to acquire this mechanism the government is faced with...