A question about the Patriot Act.?

Question

Can anyone give a true, non ranting, fact based answer to my question?

What are the fundamental pro's and con's of the act?

If you are not doing something wrong (illegal or terrorst acts) why should you be concerned about it?

Answer 1

The text of H.R. 3162, better known as the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001 can be found on the first link below.

Primarily, it changes lots of procedural rules about how information can be obtained and shared between departments. That fills the bulk of the law.

It also has some laudable provisions, such as the section condemning discrimination against Arab and Muslim Americans.

But it also stretches to the limit 4th Amendment protections, allowing the government to have access to a far broader range of personal information. For example, Title 2 of the Act includes changes to the procedures that are used for electronic surveillance, allowing information gathered to be used in domestic criminal prosecutions unrelated to terrorism.

Title 3 covers monitoring of international bank transactions. Which begs the question how the NYT could have revealed state secrets by announcing the program exists, when it's been public law since 2001.

Some of the more controversial provisions include Section 215, which modifies the rules on records searches. It authorizes the government to access your financial, library, travel, video rental, phone, medical and church records, all without your knowledge or consent, providing only the government says it's trying to protect against terrorism. The more well known examples of this are the right to monitor all books that you check out from the library, so the government can keep an eye on who is reading what. And disclosure of educational records, so the government can keep track of who is learning what.

If you're not doing anything illegal, why should you care? Well, some people object on principle to the government having access to that much personal information about them. But my argument is, if you don't like the laws, get them changed.

This is different than the argument that if Congress establishes laws and limits on what can be searched and how, the executive branch can't just ignore those laws because it feels like it. The same rule of law applies -- if they don't like what the law says, they can get it changed. But they can't just ignore the laws.

Answer 2

This is the right question. There are no rights lost in the Patriot Act for those who want to live in a free society and operate with in the given rules of the land. Even an individual doing business in Pakistan, Afghanistan or with new businesses in Iraq is not going to be infringed upon with the patriot act....and we all get the right to live.

The opponents are not about freedom and liberty - they are about political discourse and making political hey over government trying to find needles in a haystack. Let us take Hillary and Bill for a great example; 900+ private FBI files in the white house; but they have a problem with the Nantional Security Agency sorting through records of phone calls the phone companies have to keep anyway....

Answer 3

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Answer 4

I have problems with this question because although a lot of my fellow Britons have forgotten, I have not. Let us have a quick reminder for those who forget(easily). The last time I looked at the world map, America was over there. Far away.Who cares what tyranny their president cares to unleash on them? They deserve whatever act he wants to perform on them. They voted 4 him, didn't they?

Answer 5

Excellent point. If you are not doing anything wrong, there is nothing wrong with the Patriot Act. Those in opposition are either up to no good, but most are pure and simple Bush haters.

Answer 6

It is in conflict with your rights under the 4 and 14 amendments

Answer 7

I can't sum it up that quick, but I can tell you the first name they had in mind was the Reversal of freedoms act

Answer 8

it's just another way for the government to take away more of our rights,the more rights you give away the less control you'll have over your own life

Answer 9

I was going to say 'no' until I read coragryph's answer. Now, I'll say 'maybe'.

Answer 10

skirting the law is a cowpoke kind of thing to do,,,,, the US President has the power to break our laws by being arrogant and lazy,,,, I don't think so,,,