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The USA PATRIOT Act

The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to
Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (known as the USA PATRIOT Act, or simply the
PATRIOT Act) was signed into law by President Bush on October 26, 2001. It was sought
by the administration and passed by Congress in response to 9/11, and was intended to
expand the authority of law enforcement officials and intelligence agents to combat
terrorism in the United States and abroad. The PATRIOT Act amended many existing U.S.
statutes, including immigration laws, banking laws, anti-money laundering laws, and the
1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Although the law enjoyed widespread
approval in Congress when it was passed, and despite its renewal in March 2006 by a
vote of 280 to 138 in the House, many of its provisions are still highly controversial and
have been challenged in court.
This controversy is particularly important because the use of the PATRIOT Act both leads
and perpetuates a long-term broadening of governmental powers. Many of the most hotly
disputed provisions are modeled on preexisting antiracketeering statutes. These statutes
had strengthened the penalties for certain offenses committed by members of criminal
organizations, and lowered the government's burden of proof in criminal investigations
and trials.1 Although they are controversial even as applied to their original target,
organized crime, antiracketeering laws are now being used to prosecute other crimes as
well. In a similar way, many of the antiterrorism tools provided in the PATRIOT Act are now
being used to pursue those suspected of other crimes, particularly drug crimes.
The PATRIOT Act is divided into 10 titles. Title I establishes a federal fund for
counterterrorism efforts and authorizes the president to seize funds belonging to any
"foreign person, foreign organization, or foreign country" which he finds has participated in
a terrorist attack against the United States. This provision is modeled on criminal asset
forfeiture laws, which allow the government to seize the assets of accused criminals
without due process.
Title II amends FISA to allow greater surveillance of suspected terrorists and spies, both
foreign and domestic. The provisions of Title II are among the most contentious parts of
the act. Detractors argue that the increased surveillance they permit impinges on individual
rights without meaningfully increasing protection from terrorism.
Under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment and Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control
and Safe Streets Act of 1968, government searches in criminal investigations cannot be
undertaken without warrants specifying the place to be examined and the reasons for the
action. FISA allows the government to conduct warrantless searches if a federal judge finds
probable cause that the target is conducting espionage for a foreign power. However,
according to Title II of the PATRIOT Act, if the government merely certifies to a judge that a
search is related to terrorism, the judge has no authority to reject the search application. In
July 2002, the Justice Department said of this provision, "Such an order could conceivably
be served on a public library, bookstore, or newspaper."2 The University of Illinois
reported that in the months following 9/11, 10.7 percent of all libraries received requests
for reports about patrons' reading materials. Because the recipients are gagged under the
law, such requests may be significantly underreported.3

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