Title: Civil Freedoms – What’s wrong with the PATRIOT ACT?
Headings: What’s wrong with the PATRIOT ACT?
What’s wrong with the PATRIOT ACT?
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Content: Why, then, was the FBI rewarded with such expansive new powers in the aftermath of this institutional failure? In the words of former Senator Russ Feingold, the only “no” vote against the original version of the PATRIOT Act,
“ [T]here is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country that allowed the police to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your email communications; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to hold people in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, then the government would no doubt discover and arrest more terrorists. But that probably would not be a country in which we would want to live. And that would not be a country for which we could, in good conscience, ask our young people to fight and die. In short, that would not be America.” I call upon each of my Senate colleagues to seriously consider whether the time has come to re-evaluate many—if not all—provisions of the PATRIOT Act. Our oath to uphold the Constitution demands it.