Title: Surveillance Under the USA/PATRIOT Act | American Civil Liberties Union
Headings: Surveillance Under the USA/PATRIOT Act
Surveillance Under the USA/PATRIOT Act
What is the "USA/Patriot" Act?
Why Congress passed the Patriot Act
The Patriot Act increases the government's power to spy in four areas
1. Expanded access to personal records held by third parties
2. More secret searches
3. Expansion of the intelligence exception in wiretap law
4. Expansion of the "pen register" exception in wiretap law
The erosion of accountability
Non-surveillance provisions

Content: Many Senators complained that they had little chance to read it, much less analyze it, before having to vote. In the House, hearings were held, and a carefully constructed compromise bill emerged from the Judiciary Committee. But then, with no debate or consultation with rank-and-file members, the House leadership threw out the compromise bill and replaced it with legislation that mirrored the Senate version. Neither discussion nor amendments were permitted, and once again members barely had time to read the thick bill before they were forced to cast an up-or-down vote on it. The Bush Administration implied that members who voted against it would be blamed for any further attacks - a powerful threat at a time when the nation was expecting a second attack to come any moment and when reports of new anthrax letters were appearing daily. Congress and the Administration acted without any careful or systematic effort to determine whether weaknesses in our surveillance laws had contributed to the attacks, or whether the changes they were making would help prevent further attacks. Indeed, many of the act's provisions have nothing at all to do with terrorism. The Patriot Act increases the government's power to spy in four areas
The Patriot Act increases the governments surveillance powers in four areas: Records searches. It expands the government's ability to look at records on an individual's activity being held by a third parties. (