Patriot Act Pros And Cons

Even if the Patriot Act was formulated to serve as a tool to prevent future terrorist activities, there are major sections in the Act that seem to infringe immensely on 21 the rights of individuals. Evaluating major parts of the Act, I have shown that substantive rights under the Constitution seemed have been disregarded because of the cry of terrorism. When looking at such a complex issue one needs to simply conduct a balancing test to weigh out the costs and benefits of such an act. The benefits that the government seem to give for the Patriot Act is that it will act as a deterrent for terrorists who plan to plot another terrorist attack against the American people. This is when the costs start to play in. The more the government seeks to

As the reporter that I quoted earlier said there are things that the government was doing that was unprecedented. More costs to the Patriot Act include the direct violations of the Constitution. Many sections of the Patriot Act go against numerous amendments. Also, something that isn’t explicitly in the Constitution is the right to privacy. The Patriot Act shuts this down though as well. Even though the Supreme Court in Griswald, determined that the right to privacy does exist in the Constitution, the Patriot Act completely disregards this. Another major cost to the Patriot Act is that it undermines the notion of checks and balances. When one branch of 22 government is given immense power over the other, the threat of tyranny is taken into account. The Patriot Act allows for the Executive to snoop in documents that they would normally not allow them to do without the check of the other branches of government. The checks and balances principle is another principle that makes the American government so distinct from others. With the Patriot Act threatening this all for the possible prevention of terrorism doesn’t seem to be that much of a benefit to the