Title: Effects of The Patriot Act
Headings: Effects of The Patriot Act
Effects of The Patriot Act
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Content: Strangely enough, it was this act that was broadened and revamped to create the Patriot Act (Creative Commons, n.d.). Since becoming law, the Patriot Act has been highly criticized for being extremely broad and too open for interpretation. In 2004, a judge ruled that parts of the Patriot Act were unconstitutional because they were too vague and in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments. Another criticism of the Patriot Act is that it does not guarantee enough oversight to make sure that those that are given power by the act do not misuse it. On March 9, 2006 President Bush signed the Patriot Act Reauthorization, but attached a signing statement in which he said that he would ignore specific mandates written in the bill that would give more judicial and Congressional oversight to agencies authorized use of the act. In late March, letters were written to Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General at the time, requesting to have the administration rescind the signing statement since they do not have force of law. In those letters, they cited Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution which states that ‘Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it.’ Alberto Gonzales and President Bush both ignored the letters and never responded. Their argument was that the president could not change legislation that had been passed by Congress and say that he would ignore part of it that he did not agree with.