Terrorists struck America on September 11, 2001. Highjacking four
planes, they flew two of them into the World Trade Center towers in New
York and another into the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth plane
crashed in Pennsylvania before it reached its target in Washington.
Within two hours, both of the massive 110-story twin towers had
collapsed. A wing of the Pentagon was severely damaged. More than 3,000
people died in the attacks. Two days later, the White House identified
the culprits as members of Al Qaeda, an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist
group based in Afghanistan but with terrorist cells throughout the
world. The hijackers had worked out of Al Qaeda terrorist cells
operating in the United States. No one knew whether more terrorist
attacks were coming.
Soon after September 11, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft brought
before Congress a list of recommended changes in the law to combat
terrorism. Some of these measures had long been opposed by members of
Congress as infringing on the rights of Americans.
But September 11 had swept away all previous objections. The U.S.
Senate quickly passed the USA PATRIOT ACT (Uniting and Strengthening
America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism). Only one senator, Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), voted
against it.
The next day, the House of Representatives passed the bill 357-66.
The final bill was 342 pages long and changed more than 15 existing
laws. Most of the Justice Department's recommendations were incorporated
into it, but several provisions will expire in 2005.
On October 26, President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into
law. He praised the "new tools to fight the present danger . . . a
threat like no other our Nation has ever faced." He also asserted that
the Patriot Act "upholds and respects the civil liberties guaranteed by
our Constitution."
The Patriot Act defines "domestic terrorism" as activities within the
United States that . . . involve acts dangerous to human life that. . .
appear to be intended--
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping. . . .
The Patriot Act and Privacy
Some of the most controversial parts of the Patriot Act surround
issues of privacy and government surveillance. The Fourth Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution protects the "right of the people to be secure in
their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures . . . ." It requires law-enforcement officers to
obtain warrants before making most searches. To get a warrant, officers
must make sworn statements before a judge "particularly describing the
place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." The judge
may only issue a search warrant if officers show "probable cause" that
the person is engaged in criminal activity. Federal law requires that
officers report to the court on the results of the search.
Surveillance such as wiretaps and physical searches requires officers
to prove "probable cause" of criminality. Even before the Patriot Act,
there were exceptions under federal law.
One was for so-called "pen-trap" orders. To obtain from a telephone
company the numbers dialed to and from a particular telephone, officers
must get a pen-trap order from a judge. They do not need to show
probable cause, but must certify that the information is needed for an
ongoing criminal investigation. The reason for the lesser standard is
that these records are far less intrusive than wiretaps and physical
searches.
Another major exception was for matters before the Federal
Intelligence Surveillance Court. Congress created the court in 1978
following scandals revealing that U.S. intelligence agencies had spied
on hundreds of thousands of American citizens, most notably the Reverend
Martin Luther King Jr.:)
