The USA Patriot Act of 2001 The USA Patriot Act of 2001 (known as the Patriot Act; stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (Public Law Pub.L. 107-56)) is a famous statute that was enacted by the U.S. government. The Patriot Act of 2001 was signed into law by President George Bush on October 26, 2001 (The USA PATRIOT Act and beyond).
This Act was enacted to enhance the ability of U.S. law enforcement agencies to search e-mail communications, telephone, financial, medical and other records, to ease restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the U.S. and to enhance the discretion of immigration authorities and law enforcement agencies in identifying and deporting immigrants that were suspected of various terrorism-related actions.
There were few constitutional challenges to this act. The first constitutional challenge was filed by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) on July 20, 2003. According to the lawyers for the Michigan ACLU affiliate, Section 215 of the Act (that allowed the FBI to order any company or organization to turn over any tangible thing if FBI asserts that it is sought for a terrorism investigation or an ongoing foreign intelligence) violated the U.S. Constitution (Phelan).
Another legal challenge was filed by ACLU in April 2004. According to this lawsuit, FBI was accused of the use of national security letters to get business records from ISPs (internet service providers).
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Specific Restrictions on Freedom of Speech and statement Defamation If a statement is made that makes false statements that would harm a person's reputation, then they can be liable - LIBEL Censorship no censorship of plays but the Theatre Act 1968 makes it a criminal offence to present a play which is likely to corrupt / deprave any individual local authorities will decide whether a film is ...
According to the provisions in the USA Patriot Act of 2001, it was required that the case should be kept under seal, until the Justice Department will come to an agreement with the ACLU (Ball).
Finally, on September 28, 2004, Judge Victor Marrero ruled that the use of national security letters by the FBI was unconstitutional.
According to the court, as far as FBI was able to issue national security letter with no judicial supervision or any review, the use of these letters violated the Fourth Amendment; namely, prohibitions on unreasonable seizures and searches. The court also claimed that FBI unconstitutionally chilled the First Amendment right to anonymous speech of the Internet subscribers. Works Cited Ball, H. The USA Patriot Act: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World Issues).
ABC-CLIO, 2004. Phelan, J.
PATRIOT ACT. Hachette, 2007. The USA PATRIOT Act and beyond. 31 August 2009 ..
