USA Patriot Act Essay -- American Government Rights Freedom Essays

USA Patriot Act The USA Patriot Act, actually named the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism act, was created to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United State and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes. It was passed by President Bush in October of 2001. he USA Patriot Act gave the FBI and other agencies more power to investigate, created a Counterterrorism Fund, and made it illegal to aid and/or harbor terrorists. The Act was a good one to pass, and it has many good ideas and policies, but the Act contains several policies that are unconstitutional due to the rights of the First Amendment. The attacks on September 11th, 2001 were devastating. It was the first time since Pearl Harbor that the United States had been attacked on home soil. The threat to America was great, attorney general John Ashcroft responded by making the USA Patriot Act to help fight against the terrorist threat. In a time when fighting terrorism was the nation’s number one priority, the entire congress agreed on the Act, and passed it without any significant changes. The power given to the FBI and other agencies provided what was needed to capture enough terrorists to get the fight off of American land. The Patriot Act allowed the United States government the power and authority to look for terrorists in ways that was never done before. Evidence could be collected on any suspect and used in court, almost regardless of how it was required. It was almost like saying, â€Å"forget the rules, we need to protect ourselves†. At the time, the USA Patriot Act was a good thing, because the average American didn’t have to wo... ...ed. The notion that the FBI can ‘censor’ books by putting people on a watch list for reading them in a public domain is terrible, especially since the government is against censoring and banning books due to free speech rights. The idea that the government can stop a person’s expression because it ‘aids’ terrorism is also a horrible one. They might as well say that criticizing the government aids terrorism, and therefore should be punishable. The USA Patriot Act was an effective system when it was created. Without it, capturing the remaining terrorists in the United States would have been next to impossible. It was essential to solving that problem. Now that the fight against terrorism is off of American soil, the Act is no longer necessary in the fight. The USA Patriot Act should be repealed and declared unconstitutional. It violates the rights of every American.