The Patriot Act

[Yourbuddy]

The Patriot Act Is Unconstitutional
by: Riza (me)​

The Fourth amendment states "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." (Fourth amendment) but the Patriot Act, issued in October of 2001 "enhancing domestic security against terrorism"(Myths and Realities...) Which increased funding for the technical support center at the FBI. It also lets the government "intercept" (Myths and Realities...) certain types of communication. The authorities can wiretap anyone and also monitor a persons Internet activity. (Myths and Realities...) A lot of people in the United States download illegal files, and break a lot of copyright laws everyday. Would you be very comfortable you knew that the government could be watching you, what if you didn't know? The Patriot act is clearly unconstitutional and morally wrong, and I will explain to you exactly why in this essay.

The Patriot Act has its pros and cons, it may help stop terrorism but it also upsets a large amount of people at the same time. The first amendment guarantees the right of free expression. While the 14th amendment states that no state can cut short any privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States or deprive a person of life liberty or property without due to the process of law. (Fourteenth Amendment) So if people are being deprived of their life liberty or property what is the punishment? Since the Patriot Act is a law the citizens of the Unites States can be deprived of life, liberty and property.

In the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson Wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it...” (Declaration of Independence) The people of the United States of America have the right as to abolish the Patriot Act, if, The government becomes destructive of our rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness; and since opinions differ from person to person not everybody agrees that the government has become destructive. When the government breaks their own laws but back it up with a temporary document such as the Patriot Act, is that destuctive?

James Madison wrote the constitution, he was also the 4th president of the United States, from 1809 to 1917. During the time of the American Revolution he was on the Orange County Comitee of Safety. Shortly later he was elected to the Virginia convention. He was influenced by enlightenment thinkers, such as John Locke. (Ronald W. McGranahan)

John Locke, a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher. “Locke argued the people had the gift of reason, or the ability to think. Locke thought they had the natural ability to govern themselves and to look after the well being of society. He wrote, "The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which {treats} everyone {equally}.reason , which is that law, teaches all mankind... that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health or possessions." (Tem42) Locke was a 'key player' in the Constitution although he wasn't alive when it was written. His ideas let the people govern as a democracy and at the same time he promoted education. Today we are all treated equally in the United States of America, thanks to Locke's original ideas.
Napoleon Bonaparte was a man who got things done, instead of asking people to follow his laws he forced them into it. This angered the people but in the long run they loved his ideas, but by that time he was already cast away. In a way the Patriot act is a forcefull act, Napoleon would have most likely been in favor of this. Napoleon fell because of his brute force, people don't like to be told to do things, so if the same things happen to the United States of America the people will rebel. Since the United States is a democracy everyone shares equal responsibilities, you can't vote for someone and then complain about them, you are part of the reason he or she is there.

The Patriot Act has been abused, as a matter of fact two sections of the Patriot Act have been declared unconstitutional. Brandon Mayfield, a Portland Oregon resident and also an attorney that converted to Islam was accused by the government for being involved in the Madrid Bombing from evidence. The FBI had secretly searched his house without a warrant, they copied four of his computer drives, took pictures of various things (around 335 pictures), and seized ten DNA samples. All implicated under sections 218 (Foreign intelligence information) of the Patriot Act. They searched his house with just a "significant purpose" ,Later to find out that fingerprints were mistaken. (Myths and Realities...)The odds of two people having the same fingerprint... only one in 220 million, winning the California Super Lotto... one in 1.9 million.

Tariq Ramadan of Europe was featured in Time magazine as one of the top 100 innovators of the 21st Century. The government revoked his visa to teach at the University of Notre Dame under sections 411 of the Patriot Act (Definitions relating to terrorism) accusing him of persuading people to support terrorist activity. So anyone who discusses politics that may be adopted by a terrorist group, even if that person doesn't support terrorists the government can deny a visa. Tariq didn't support violence and was already granted a visa after going through heavy security procedures, he had been in the United States before many times. The Justice Departments, after reading about Brandon Mayfield and Tariq Ramadan DENIED that these were abuses of the Patriot Act. (Myths and Realities...)
“The Patriot Act is mostly taking what we can do to track drug dealers and thugs and give those tools to people tracking spies and terrorists.” (Myths and Realities...) If this is true, the US needs more high tech security devices, the US still has old metal detectors in airports and luggage is only scanned from one side, giving everything a 2 dimensional figure so a gun, for example, on its side would be seen as a square. The US has the technology and the money for these types of things but where are they?

People who defend the Patriot Act will probably tell you about how the Patriot act has allowed authority's to charge more than 400 people in terrorism investigations since September 11th 2001. The actual number of people that were convicted of crimes related to terrorism was 39 (Myths and Realities...) , only 39 people not 400, out of the hundreds of thousands of people that have traveled from 9/11/2001 to 2005. Next time your on a flight, take your mind off the the middle eastern guy and ask yourself “Am I doing this for 39 people?”
Is the Constitution outdated? or is the Patriot act too extreme? Citizens of the United States are giving up their Constitutional rights because the United States is trying to preserve equality by not singling out the minority. Some people don't care if the minority is singled out, as long as they have privacy they are happy. So now the US can single out the minority and establish an unequal security system, or just renew The Patriot Act.

The people of the United States are surrounded by a lot of bogus stories, the media takes advantage of the people and gives them the news that sells. It seems that the truth does not appeal to people anymore, some people take a step further and start actually believing some stories and start pointing fingers at people, the wrong people. If you want the real story you should visit the people that are affected by it, and that have first hand experience. Don't trust a third party to deliver your information. The United States is forgetting who they are, the land of the free and the home of the brave.


W/C

First Amendment. Findlaw.[updated 26 September 2005; cited September 25 2005] Available from http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/.

Fourteenth Amendment. Findlaw. [updated 26 September 2005; cited September 25 2005] Available from http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment14/.

Fourth Amendment. Findlaw. [updated 26 September 2005; cited September 25 2005]. Available from http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/.

Jeff Trandahl. USA Patriot Act. Electronic Privacy Information Center. [updated 7 April 2005; cited 25 September 2005]. Available from http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html.

Myths and Realities about the Patriot Act.American Civil Liberties Union. [updated 10 July 2005; cited 25 September 2005]. Available from http://action.aclu.org/reformthepatriotact/facts.html.

Ronald W. McGranahan. James Madison. The American Revolution Home Page [updated 7 March 2004; cited 25 September 2005] Available from http://www.americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/MADISON.HTM.

Tem42. John Locke. Everything 2 [updated 4 April 2000; cited 25 April 2005] Available from http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=John Locke.

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies. Indiana University School of Law. [updated 11 October 2004; cited 25 September 2005]. Available from http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html.

Done.

 

[Yourbuddy]

Sorry for double posting but it wouldn't allow me to post a message under my essay because it had to be 1000 charactors with at least 3 charactors outside the quote box.
I wrote this essay for history class, when i was doing the final copy i forgot to double space and i wrote like 8 pages lol.
-Yourbuddy

 

[lilleece06]

I think that it needs to be changed. Nobody even reviewed it before making it law they just passed it because they were in dire straits and it would've been unpatriotic to not pass something called the Patriot Act. I've seen some of it and its ludacris. There is a section in there that says if you protest against the government and the police have just "reason", you can be arrested and prosecuted as a terrorist. Come on now this infringes on our rights as Americans