The USA Patriot Act: A Sketch

The US government passed the Patriot Act as part of a response to the infamous 9/11 attacks. George W. Bush passed this act, saying that current laws prohibited his ability to be a good president to the United States. So many things were wrong with the Patriot Act, because many of its stipulations infringed on several staple American rights stated by the Bill of Rights. The Patriot Act allowed for secret searches, invasion of privacy, and other acts for intelligence purposes, so basically it allowed for domestic terrorism. Anyone could be subject to all of these things, so long as the US government found it within its laws to believe that someone was committing acts of terrorism or hate towards the Bush administration. The political and media backlash that resulted in the Patriot Act are proof that the people believed that this act was in violation of their American rights, and because of it the Bush administration faced much criticism and controversy. Did the Patriot Act actually help the US government in any way in terms of combating terrorism, or did it do more harm than good to not only the American government, but also to the American public?

- Timothy Huynh

Section A01