Blog Post 4: The Patriot Act

The Patriot Act is a law that was passed in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Those attacks shook the very foundation of our country. It made us aware that we were not as safe as we may have thought. It also made us react very quickly to protect ourselves. I will give a description of the Patriot Act to explain what it does. With all this information, we should have a better understanding of this law.

According to the Department of Justice, their first priority is to prevent future terrorist attacks. The Patriot Act has played a key part in protecting Americans from terrorists dedicated to destroying America. The Department of Justice says that Congress simply took existing legal principles and retrofitted them to preserve the lives and liberty of the American people from the challenges posed by a global terrorist network. The purpose of this law is to protect us. The law did this through enhancing national security and limiting civil liberties. This would allow the government to better protect the nation.

The Patriot Act has ten sections to it that outline the new powers that government will have. Title I enhances domestic security. White says it creates funding for counterterrorist activities, expands technical support for the FBI, expands electronic intelligence-gathering research, and defines presidential authority in response to terrorism. Title II is one of the more controversial aspects of the law. It improves the government’s ability to gather electronic evidence. For White, this means that it allows police officials expanded authority to monitor communications. It allows sharing of intelligence with federal agencies. Also, private corporations would have to share their records and data with federal law enforcement. During an investigation, these materials could be seized when it was believed that national security was in jeopardy. Title III empowered federal law enforcement to interact with banking regulators and provides arrest power outside U.S. borders for U.S. agents investigating terrorist financing and money laundering explains White. Title IV increased border patrols and the monitoring of foreigners. It also allowed detention of suspected terrorists. Title V enhanced investigative powers. It provided a reward system, called for sharing of findings among agencies, extended the jurisdiction of the Secret Service, and forced educational institutes to release records on foreign students. Title VI was created to provide compensation to the families of public safety officers killed during a terrorist attack. Title VII focused on police information sharing. This helped in the use of a nationwide police investigative network called the Regional Information Sharing System (RISS) says White. This system was only used in criminal investigations prior to the Patriot Act. Title VIII helped to define what terrorism is by defining terrorist attacks and domestic terrorism. It provided the basis to charge terrorists overseas. It criminalizes support for terrorism and cyber-terrorism, allowed investigation of terrorism rackets and it expanded bio-terrorism laws. The last two titles contain miscellaneous things that do not need to be addressed.

According to White, in 2005, the Patriot Act was scheduled for renewal. The House of Representatives voted to renew it. But, the Senate argued that it was passed too quickly and that many of the provisions expanded governmental authority too far. The Republicans wanted to pass the extension of the Patriot Act, the Democratic Senate leaders wanted to urge caution. Jonathan White says that in 2006, the White House and Congress reached a compromise. As a result, the Patriot Act was approved with new provisions. Some of these new provisions involved the use of legal counsel if one is found to be a suspect of terrorism. When the government seeks information it can be challenged. In a situation of terrorist investigations, suspects and others involved are allowed to talk about it. Regardless of these changes, the Patriot Act still provides a lot of power to the government, especially the executive branch of government. Currently, the Patriot Act is still in effect but I believe that it is going expire at the end of this year.

The Patriot Act is a law that was developed to protect our country. It greatly increased the power of government. The particular branch that got the most out of it was the executive branch of government. At the time, the executive branch had enormous power to defend national security in anyway they saw fit. When you give one branch enormous powers, the balance between the branches is broken. This made it to where civil liberties were put at risk. Making people become a victim of the very law that is suppose to protect us. That is the very reason why changes were made to the law. The idea of trying to balance the situation became an important issue to tackle. With the expiration of the Patriot Act at the end of this year, it will be interesting to see what happens. For me, balance is very important to have and the Patriot Act completely killed that balance.

Work Cited: White, Jonathan R. Terrorism and Homeland Security. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Belmont, CA 2009.

The Department of Justice. What is the Patriot Act. Retrieved from: http://www.usdoj.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm