Patriot Act Research Paper

Introduction In the aftermath of terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, citizens became increasingly concerned with their safety and the protection of their civil liberties leading to an increase in security, measures both nationally and internationally. Civil liberties are defined as “the right of people to do or say things that are not illegal without being stopped or interrupted by the government” (Merriam-Webster). The issue arises when the government invades these liberties, specifically privacy, to protect citizens from terrorist attacks and other preventable incidents. There is a very fine line between too much interference and not enough; everyone wants to be safe without compromising their privacy. The NSA

The Patriot Act’s goal was to “Unit and Strengthen America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.” One of the main goals of this act was to change some of the restrictions Clinton put on law officials. After the act was passed, intelligence officials and law officials were allowed to share information with each other (Patriot Act). The U.S. Secretary General gained more power through the Patriot Act and was allowed to detain and deport terrorist suspects. Another change as a result of the act was much easier access to search warrants. Instead of having to get individual warrants for every location surrounding a case, the Patriot Act allowed one warrant to cover all locations related to one alleged terrorist. By allowing warrants to be passed with such ease it made investigations more timely but also put citizens privacy at stake. These laws reassured the public of their safety immediately after a terrorist attack but, in more current times as technology continues to advance, people feel threatened by the growing power of the

A possible agency could be the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A third option, would be to create a third party only responsible for the data. The disadvantage to this is fear by the public that it would just become an extension to the NSA. This third party would also be carrying out a government function with higher costs, more legal ambiguity, and less accountability. A final possible solution would be to eliminate the phone-data program altogether. The drawback to this solution is the work needed to find an alternative to collection information about