The USA patriot act : repeating the mistakes of previous governments by imposing unconstitutional restrictions on people s civil liberties in the name of national security

Abstract

The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was a most horrific expression of how international and domestic terrorism posed new, and until then, unimaginable threats to the national security of the United States. On the evening of September 11, President Bush addressed the nation and assured the American public that he had directed the full resources of [American] intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. On October 26, 2001, Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act into law and called this new piece of legislation an essential step in defeating terrorism. He stated that the Act would provide intelligence and law enforcement communities with important new tools to fight a present danger, and that the new legislation did this while protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans.

My thesis is that the PATRIOT Act constitutes infringements on civil liberties similar to the United States government s violations of constitutionally protected rights of groups and individuals during the Red Scares after World War I and II and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. By enforcing the PATRIOT Act, the government is imposing unreasonable restrictions on the guarantees of the Bill of Rights in the name of national security. I have found support for this thesis by analysing the court documents in five legal challenges to the PATRIOT Act and by comparing these with the arguments for restricting constitutional rights during the three previous periods.