Patriot Act

Patriot Act
Name
Institution
Patriot Act
The Patriot Act was enacted after the September 11 terrorist attack that had adverse impacts on the USA. The act was declared as law during the President Bush administration, and it provided a supplementary extension of executive power. This counterterrorism policy was not only implemented to combat terrorism but also to protect the US citizens. All this was also done in an attempt to block terrorists from being financed (USA Patriot Act, 2016). As a result, the Act makes a lot of changes on current federal statutes, it widens the demarcation of terrorism, increases punitive penalties for terrorist, gives the government more power on wiretapping, increases unnecessary search warrants since it lowers the criteria of the plausible cause. Furthermore, it encourages information distribution among government law agencies. However, it infringes the rights of both citizens and non-citizens, and it accords the government more surveillance authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
As seen earlier, the Act was enacted to protect the USA from terrorists. Therefore, it allows the US citizen to experience a sense of security. However, the civil rights of the citizens are not being upheld. The government is meddling too much with people’s lives hence limiting citizens from experiencing freedom in full length; this can be viewed as a violation of constitutional rights (John, 2006). This violation arises from the fact that the government has the authority to perform constant surveillance and wire trapping which results in the disruption of privacy.

Also, the unreasonable searches are another issue of concern. This act as well infringes citizen’s privacy in the name intelligence investigation. As such, this harsh law only creates more enemies for USA citizens and thus predisposing them to further danger of terrorist attacks in the name of retaliation. The Act seems to cause more harm than good as it is seen as a war initiative.
References
John, C. (2006). An Act To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes. The Journal Of Politics, 68(2), 1-131.
USA Patriot Act. (2016). Historical And Social-Educational Ideas, 8(4/2), 60-63.