Patriot Act

The Patriot Act was passed in October 2001 by President Geoge W. Bush. It was a direct response to the September 11 attacks to help law enforcement officials detect, combat, and prevent terrorism. PATRIOT stands for Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. Effectively, the Patriot Act. The act was considered controversial upon its initial passing and was therefore modified in 2015 to guarantee the rights of Americans. However, the act is still considered controversial as it infringes on the privacy of all American citizens in order to protect from terrorist.

The Patriot Act is meant to improve the effectiveness of Homeland Security and law enforcement.

Under the act, law enforcement is legally allowed to:

• Use surveillance (including wiretapping) to investigate terror-related crimes
• Request court permission to use roving wiretaps to track a specific terrorist suspect
• Use delayed notification search warrants to prevent a terrorist from learning they are a suspect
• Increase penalties for people who harbor suspected terrorists
• Seek federal court permission to obtain bank records and business records to aid in national security terror investigations and prevent money laundering for terrorism financing

It also eliminated the statute of limitations for any and all terror-related crimes in the United States.