As a result of the Patriot Act, The United States has forsaken or changed many of the essential rights that were set forth by the nation’s forefathers in the drafting of the United States Constitution. The United States’ continued support of the Patriot Act is a prime example of this trend. Since its creation following the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 over a decade ago, the Patriot Act has continued to infringe on the rights given to all Americans. One major way that the Patriot Act attacks the rights of citizens is through its continued surveillance of all citizens. The Patriot Act has allowed the government to use wire-tapping to record the phone calls of United States citizens. In doing so, the United States clearly breaks the rights granted to citizens in the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures. The Patriot Act has also allowed the military to mistreat those accused of being involved with terrorist causes. The United States, a nation that has prided it self on being just and fair, has broken that mentality with their treatment of detained terror suspects. The detained suspects are held for an indefinite period of time and commonly do not have any legal correspondence during their time in detention. In many cases these suspects are found to be innocent months later and are released without having had any legal correspondence during their detainment (Edgar and Rosenzweig). Lastly, the Patriot Act has allowed the government to greatly disrespect the rights of businesses. The provisions of the Patriot Act give the government the ability to seize confidential information, such as credit card numbers and addresses, from businesses about their customers. This action, which is also a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, has actually been declared to be illegal in many smaller courts (Swartz).
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