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The Patriot Act

• After 9/11 Attorney General John Ashcroft recommended a series of laws to fight terrorism.

• George Bush signed this Act into law in Oct. 2001 calling the act, “a new tool to fight the present danger.”

• Bush updates law,

March, 2006.

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The Patriot Act define" domestic terrorism” as activities intended to:

1) Intimidate or coerce the population

2) Influence the policy of government

3) To affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.• The Patriot Act now authorizes “search” orders of

any U.S. citizen who the FBI believes may be involved in terrorist activities.

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Controversial DiscussionDiscuss in a small group whether your group

chooses to support or oppose the following sections of the Patriot Act.

• Section 213: “sneak and peak searches”

The FBI has the right to search a citizens home or business in secret without informing the individual.

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• Section 215-217:

Allows the FBI to search documents, computers, e-mail, medical records, internet records, university records, library records, or force an individual to turn over “any tangible things”.

The FBI does not need to show probable cause to enforce the Patriot Act.

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What does the following quote mean and do you agree with them?

– “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”

- Ben Franklin

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Patriot Act Political Cartoons

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Patriot Act Political Cartoons

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Patriot Act Political Cartoons

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Patriot Act Political Cartoons

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• END

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• “There is danger that, if the Supreme Court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.”

-Justice Robert H. Jackson (1949)