The PATRIOT Act is hundreds of pages long, includes dozens of provisions, and substantially amends numerous federal statutes. Among other things, the PATRIOT Act:

» empowers the FBI to obtain records concerning anyone at all, including people who are not suspected of any involvement whatsoever in criminal activity or espionage, and prohibits organizations that are forced to disclose their records from telling anyone else about it (Section 215)

» for the first time in the country’s history, empowers the FBI to disregard the Fourth Amendment’s usual requirements – including the probable cause and notice requirements – in some criminal investigations (Section 218)

» empowers the FBI to conduct searches in criminal investigations, however minor the crime, without notifying the targets of the searches until weeks or even months later (Section 213)

» expands the Attorney General’s power unilaterally to demand the credit and banking records of anyone at all, including people who are not suspected of any involvement whatsoever in criminal activity or espionage (Section 505)

» introduces a definition of “domestic terrorism” broad enough to include groups like Greenpeace and Operation Rescue (Section 802)

These provisions dramatically expand the power of the executive branch. They cannot fairly be characterized as effecting only “modest, incremental changes in the law.”

analysis by ACLU national staff attorney Jameel Jaffer

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