Running Head: VIOLATION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS UNDER THE PATRIOT ACT
Violation of American Rights under the Patriot Act
Mohammad Zafar
Virginia Commonwealth University
Authors Note:
This Paper was prepared for UNIV 112 , taught by professor Corner .

2
VIOLATION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS UNDER THE PATRIOT ACT
Abstract
The Patriot Act was enacted by the United States Government in the wake of the September 11 th terrorist attacks. The Patriot Act has been misused and misrepresented on and to American
Citizens. The Basic rights outlined for American citizen in the constitution are being violated in the name of public safety, Americans rights are being violated by the United States government.
The right to unlawful search and seizure outlined in the fourth amendment is being violated as well as the right to legal council outlined in the sixth amendment. Habeas Corpus which states that a person has the right to be arraigned in front of a judge in a timely manner is being violated.
The Patriot Act has taken power from the judicial branch of the government and placed it with the executive branch, the powers taken from judges has been given to soldiers and law enforcement. Many Americans believe that the Patriot Act has directly lead to the capture of terrorist and foiled terror plots but this is a claim with no merit. It is a common misconception that the Patriot Act has lead to a decrease in terrorist activities. Many Americans believe that if they forfeit their rights they are able to help the government but they are in fact hurting themselves and others around them, by forgoing their rights they are helping the United States move more towards a police state.

3
VIOLATION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS UNDER THE PATRIOT ACT
The Patriot Act was passed on October 26 th , 2001 following the September 11 th
attacks to aid law enforcement in preventing future terrorist attacks on U .
S .
soil .
The Patriot Act extended the use of surveillance from organized crime and drug trafficking to crimes of terror , the technology that was already being used to thwart organized crime was now being used to catch terrorists .
But the Patriot Act has circumvented and manipulated the rights of the people which have been outlined in the constitution .
An example of our rights being violated by law enforcement is that they are allowed to search premises before a warrant is displayed , which violates our right from unlawful search and seizure .
The United States Government violates the rights of its citizens everyday through the use of the Patriot Act , which allows governmental agencies the right to search and seize property and documents without the presentation of a warrant and the detainment of individuals without access to legal council .
The United states passed the Patriot Act in order to prevent future terrorist attacks , but acts sanctioned under the Patriot Act violate the rights of its citizens .
The United States government has allowed the use of roving wiretaps and the delay of a presentation of a warrant in order to aid law enforcement in stopping terrorist activities (USA Patriot , 2005) .
But these powers can be abused by law enforcement where they can place roving wiretaps on citizens without a warrant or probable cause , this also permits law enforcement to search a property without displaying a warrant until after the fact which is a flagrant violation of the fourth amendment which was created by the founding fathers to prevent unlawful search and seizures .
The Patriot Act violates the principles this country was founded upon , set into place by the

VIOLATION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS UNDER THE PATRIOT ACT founding fathers .
The Patriot Act also allows for witnesses to be held without access to an attorney which is a violation of the 6 th
amendment which gives the right to legal council , yet
4 another founding principle is being infringed upon .
The Patriot Act is in violation of Habeas
Corpus which protects people from being imprisoned unlawfully .
The Patriot Act allows U .
S .
citizens to be detained if they are suspected of terrorism , but terrorism has never clearly been defined and agencies often stretch this interpretation .
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is allowed to investigate any persons they see fit and would be able to access their personal information such as bank records with little to no evidence of any wrongdoing .
“The agency to sweep broadly and to investigate intrusively even when it has no credible evidence that a person is engaged in , or planning , wrongdoing” (Cole , 2011) . Under section 215 of the Patriot Act expanded the types of documents that agencies could request which was previously limited to certain business records such as storage units and vehicle rentals (Christian p .
37 , 2013) .
It also prohibited the person providing the documents to disclosing to the client that their documents had be requested and delivered to the United States Government .
The United States Government is able to violate the rights of its people for a common good known as utilitarianism , which states that the need of the many outweigh the need of the few .
Agencies have been known to use
Patriot Act to detain citizens without access to legal council with little to no evidence that they have committed a crime .
Under the guise of the Patriot Act the agencies under its jurisdiction have been permitted to bypass the rights of its citizens and circumvent due process .
For years the United States

5
VIOLATION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS UNDER THE PATRIOT ACT governmental agencies have misused the Patriot Act and grossly violated the rights of its people .
One example of this flagrant violation is what happened to Brandon Mayfield .
Former U .
S .
Army Lieutenant and lawyer Brandon Mayfield was suspected buy the U .
S .
Government to having committed the Madrid bombing in Spain .
(Eddlem , 2011) .
He was wrongly accused and held for two weeks with no evidence without access to an attorney .
Mayfield was persecuted by the government even after he had been cleared by the Spanish Government in the bombing .
The
U .
S .
Government had confiscated all of his confidential client files and effectively ruined his life .
The Patriot Act effectively negates the fourth amendment in that citizens can be held without probable cause and be searched without a warrant .
In fact , this happened to Abdullah al-
Kidd , he was held for aiding a terrorist cell but was later proven innocent .
He was held under the
Patriot Act as a material witness in a cell in inhumane conditions and his life was effectively ruined for nothing (Eddlem , 2011) .
Because of the government intervention al-Kidd lost his scholarship , was placed under house arrest for 3 years and as a result was not able to find a job and had to move back to Saudi Arabia .
This legislature takes away all rights to privacy and legally allows agencies to detain citizens with little to no evidence because they are viewed as having a possible connection .
The Patriot Act allows for governmental agencies to seize records of patrons from libraries , even after their records have been seized the patrons cannot be notified by library officials (Beaudette , p .
18 , 2015) .
This violates the rights of the people that use the resources that the library has to provide , they expect a level of privacy when it comes to what

VIOLATION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS UNDER THE PATRIOT ACT they read or do at the library .
What is even worse is that librarians cannot even notify the patron
6 that their records have been seized because it may tip off the person under investigation who may or may not be guilty , but they have a right to know that their privacy has been violated the
United States government .
This legislature take away power from judges and gives it to soldiers and police officers , which tips the scales towards the executive body and makes the checks and balances system invalid .
It is conveyed that the Patriot Act was in acted in order to aid in the prevention and prosecution of terrorist attacks on U .
S .
soil , and to do so it would need to supersede the rights of individuals to create the safest environment for people to live .
Is the infringement of the rights of minorities minuscule when compared to the rights of the many?
One would think that just because a minority of people fall into a category they would still be afforded the same rights as the majority .
It is believed that to protect the majority of rights it is acceptable to violate a few , which is agreeable when looking through the scope of a terrorist withholding information what could save countless lives .
But the Act is not used explicitly , there are many Americans being held against their will without probably cause because they are suspected of a crime .
The Patriot Act is abused by its agencies under the guise of protecting the many .
Now there was a split decision in congress whether to renew the Patriot Act , with a majority voting in favor of renewing .
The decision was whether to renew the Patriot Act or to conduct surveillance in compliance with the constitution the vote was split 234-186 with the majority in favor of renewing the act .
(Nichols , 2011) This would mean that a majority of

7
VIOLATION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS UNDER THE PATRIOT ACT
Americans would prefer to keep the Patriot Act , this is why it is still in effect today .
The majority of Americans do not feel threatened by the flagrant misuse of the act and do not think it would ever effect them in their personal lives .
But , they have a false sense of security because these violations could happen to anyone , from former army lieutenants to college students .
There have been cases where the FBI was denied a warrant by a judge and granted itself the power of search and seizure , which takes powers away from the judicial bodies and hinders the checks and balances system .
It is rationalized as the need of the many outweighs the need of the few and in order to maximize the safety of this nations the few should be probed and violated .
Many
Americans hold the false view that the Patriot Act has helped stop many terrorist attacks and saved many American lives .
However , this is not true , the FBI has admitted that the Patriot Act has not lead to any major terrorism cases that have solved (Ybarra , 2015) .
Many Americans are willing to sacrifice their freedoms in order to aid the government in apprehending terrorist .
These Americans do not know about the misuse or the frequency of misuse and how it affects even innocent individuals .
The Patriot Act is a tool used by the United States government to violate the privacy and rights of the American people .
The Patriot Act allows for citizens to be held under false pretense .
Much of the Patriot Act s in violation of the fourth and sixth amendments .
The Patriot
Act allowed for unlawful search and seizure which a is flagrant violation of the fourth amendment .
The Act also allows citizens to be held without access to legal council which is a gross violation of the sixth amendment which guarantees the right to legal council .
The Patriot

VIOLATION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS UNDER THE PATRIOT ACT
Act destroys the concept of Habeas Corpus which states that a person being held has to be brought before a judge to be arraigned .
“The law gives all citizens the right to life .
Your right to
8 life means that everyone else a duty not to kill you” (Whyte , p .
386 , 2015) .
The Patriot Act is consistently misused by government agencies . The Patriot Act was created in order to “deter and punish terrorists” and most of the points and articles in the act do just that , they limit the financial transactions and monitor communications between terrorists (Christian p .
36 , 2013) .
But , these provisions make it easier for law-enforcement to invade the private lives of American citizens .
There is a common misconception that the Patriot Act has a direct correlation in the apprehension of terrorist however this has been proven to be false .
It has also been stated by the
FBI that the Patriot Act has not lead to the apprehension of any major terrorist or prevented any major terrorist attacks on United States Soil . The belief that the Patriot Act has aided in prevent myriad attacks from occurring on American soil is a major reason that the act continues to garner the support of many Americans , however if they knew this claim to be false then they might not be as supportive to the renewal of these gross violations of privacy .

VIOLATION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS UNDER THE PATRIOT ACT
Beaudette Jr .
, M .
P .
(2015) .
COMPLIANCE WITHOUT CREDIT: THE NATIONAL
SECURITY AGENCY AND THE INTERNATIONAL RIGHT TO PRIVACY .
Air
Force Law Review , 73 25-59 .
Christian , Michele .
"Archivists and the USA Patriot Act : Are We Prepared?" Provenance
24 (2013): 35-53 .
Web .
1 Dec .
2015 .
Cole , D .
(2011) .
The War on Civil Liberties .
Nation , 293 (3/4) , 6-8 .
Eddlem , T .
R .
(2011) .
Anti-Fourth Amendment Patriot Act .
New American (08856540) , 27 (8) ,
17-21 .
Nichols , J .
(2011) .
UNPATRIOTIC ACT .
Nation , 292 (10/11) , 5 .
Trinkaus-Randall , G .
(2005) .
The USA Patriot Act : Archival Implications .
Journal Of
Archival Organization , 3 (4) , 7-23 .
doi:10 .
1300/J201v03n04•02
Ybarra , M .
(2015 , May 21) .
FBI admits no major cases cracked with Patriot Act snooping powers .
Retrieved November 17 , 2015 , from http://www .
washingtontimes .
com/news/2015/may/21/fbi-admits-patriot-act-snoopingpowers-didnt-crack/?page=all
What is the USA Patriot Web .
(2001 , October 26) .
Retrieved November 15 , 2015 , from http://www .
justice .
gov/archive/ll/highlights .
htm
9

VIOLATION OF AMERICAN RIGHTS UNDER THE PATRIOT ACT
Whyte , J .
(2015) .
The Right to Your Opinion .
In Focused Inquiry True Stories Narrative &
10
Understanding (2015-2016 ed .
, pp .
384-388) .
Richmond: VCU .