If the patriot act is a copy or an extension of already existing laws then why is...?

Question

... the patriot act necessary? And is it being abused? Educate me... don't hate me.

Answer 1

It totally ignores the rule of law whereby it being "the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure. The principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary governance" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_law).

To better understand why the Patriot Act does ignore this, check out the ACLU's website at:

Answer 2

The Patriot Act, and the 2005 act re-authorizing and extending certain provisions, allowed things which previously were not allowed under federal law.

Except for one provision in the original act, which was changed by the re-authorization, the acts are constitutional.

Plenty of evidence (including formal admissions by agency officials) exists to show that law enforcement and investigatory agencies have exceeded the provisions of the acts, and done things that are not allowed under federal law.

The Patriot Act is not "necessary" by any objective standard. There are alternate ways to accomplish any of the same goals. But by far most provisions of the Patriot Act are not intrusive or irrational either. It's just a few parts make people unconformable and intrude on areas they want to be private.

Personally, I think many parts of the Patriot Act and related legislation should be repealed, and replaced with laws that ar equally effective but based on less paranoia.

Answer 3

It goes beyond existing laws. And yes it is absolutely necessary.

Existing laws were designed to trigger AFTER a crime had taken place and provide a deterence to people who cared if they got caught.

Waiting till after the crime has taken place is going to leave you with thousands, tens of thousands.. or potentially even millions of dead. Further, the people who carry out these attacks tend to kill themselves in the process.

Existing laws simply were not viable when dealing with terrorism.

Is it being abused? Perhaps somewhat. But the same can be true of any law. It doesn't mean we should eliminate any law that has the potential of abuse.. or we'd be living in total anarchy.