Patriot Act Essay Example for Free

nationalist identification number EssayIn her article, Cathy Zeljak maintains that the patriot turn of events has infringed on Americans genteel liberties, particularly the Fourth Amendments protections against il good searches and watch. Using the recent history of legal decisions on law enforcement agencies information-gathering practices, the author argues that the Patriot transaction strips citizens of the legal protections they received in the late 1970s. end-to-end the piece, she asks, Are we sacrificing essential liberties in the fight against terrorism? (Zeljak, 2004, p. 69), and her answer (the overriding thesis of this article) is yes. Zeljak argues that the Patriot Act undermines both the Fourth Amendment and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Act, which was passed in 1978 to impose guidelines on government surveillance of private citizens. Before then, government surveillance of citizens lacked straighten guidelines, and government agencies behaved arbitrarily as a result.hypothetic threats, like antiwar activists and civil-rights leaders like Martin Luther King, were frequently monitored and harassed. The FISA Act aimed to curb these abuses and placed more legal guidelines on federal surveillance, requiring that foreign intelligence had to be a original cause for issuing a insure to conduct surveillance on an individual. However, the Patriot Act has removed many of the FISA Acts protections, at present allowing warrants to be issued with foreign intelligence purposes as only a tangential reason, not a primary cause.In addition, law enforcement officials may now seize a wider array of records, using the broad exposition any tangible thing (Zeljak, 2004, p. 70) instead of the narrow lists specified by the FISA Act. The Patriot Act similarly allows government agencies to spy on innocent third parties as a means of obtaining information close to primary suspects, further weakening the Fourth Amendments protections, and it a llows agencies to share information more freely, without letting charge individuals known what evidence exists against them.In March 2002, FISC rejected John Ashcrofts proposals to allow law enforcement officials broader penetration to (and use of) information gathered under the Patriot Act. In effect, says Zeljak, this transferred fundamental rights away from individual citizens, greatly increasing the authority of intelligence and investigative agencies (Zeljak, 2004, p. 70). FISA warrants can thus be used for criminal investigations without clear probable cause.Zeljak also claims that, despite two court defeats on this issue, the Bush administration hopes to further blow ones stack its surveillance and prosecutory powers with Patriot Act II, which would automatically grant federal agents who conduct illegal searches complete license and allow the government to deport American citizens found guilty of helping terrorist organizations.Basically, she maintains, such an expansion of the Patriot Act would allow the government near-total freedom to conduct investigations with few legal guidelines, and would considerably curtail citizens protections and civil liberties. Zeljak concludes the article by stating that Americans must wonder whether we are sacrificing essential liberties in the fight against terrorism, and ends with a provoking read/write head . . . have the terrorists already won the opening round? (Zeljak, 2004, p. 0)Zeljak takes a clear stance against the Patriot Act, considering it a flagrant violation of American citizens constitutionally-guaranteed rights against illegal surveillance. She asserts that the FISA Act has essentially been gutted and that plans to widen the Patriot Act would further deprive citizens of legal protection, making their rights meaningless in the name of intelligence gathering. Her concluding question implies that, with the Patriot Act, democracy has been undermined.