Patriot Act
rating: 0+x

Basic Information

The USA PATRIOT Act is an Act of Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001.[1] With its ten-letter abbreviation (USA PATRIOT) expanded, the full title is "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001".

Opponents of the law have criticized its authorization of indefinite detentions of immigrants; the permission given law enforcement officers to search a home or business without the owner's or the occupant's consent or knowledge; the expanded use of National Security Letters, which allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to search telephone, e-mail, and financial records without a court order; and the expanded access of law enforcement agencies to business records, including library and financial records. Since its passage, several legal challenges have been brought against the act, and federal courts have ruled that a number of provisions are unconstitutional.

Sources

Game and Story Use

  • This act allowed expanded powers for the government to detain citizen and conduct intelligence operations on them.
  • Arguably an example of the savage wars of peace - a state which is basically law abiding is attempting to square a very real and obvious state of war with an enemy that is not well defined but has clearly infiltrated its own territory and civilian population.
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License