Repeal the Patriot Act¶

2019-04-18

On the morning of September 11th, 2001 at approximately 8:00 AM, American Airlines flight 11 departed Logan International Airport in Boston. 92 people were onboard the aircraft. Less than an hour later—at 8:46 AM—Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center marking the beginning of an attack which would leave 2,996 people dead and a psychological wound in the collective psyche of America.

In the wake of the largest attack on American soil since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the American population was understandably shaken. Accountability was demanded. Hollywood temporarily stopped making movies where important landmarks and buildings are blown up. French fries unironically became “Freedom Fries”.

America is not a place where attacks happen frequently. Our economic prowess, military power, and geographic location all serve us well and losses of life on American soil at this scale are exceedingly rare. Understandably, people wanted to feel safe again. And so, on October 26th, 2001 Congress passed PUBLIC LAW 107–56: UNITING AND STRENGTHENING AMERICA BY PROVIDING APPROPRIATE TOOLS REQUIRED TO INTERCEPT AND OBSTRUCT TERRORISM ACT OF 2001.

The fairly wordy title can be abbreviated with the acronym USA PATRIOT ACT OF 2001 or—as most people today simply refer to it—“The Patriot Act”.

In the House the vote passed 357-66 with the majority of dissent coming from the Democratic party. The only three Republican members of the house to vote against the law were Ron Paul, Robert Ney, and Butch Otter. In the Senate the vote passed 98-1 with the sole dissenting vote coming from Democrat Russ Feingold.

Despite the overwhelming bipartisan support for the bill, it was written and passed quickly with many lawmakers confessing to not having read the bill at all. As awareness of the sweeping powers that it granted intelligence agencies grew it became increasingly controversial in the public arena. Proponents argued that the powers were necessary for our safety and promised that the powers would be used responsibly and—for a time—the public largely moved on from the debate.

Interest was temporarily renewed in 2013 when Edward Snowden leaked documents which showed the scale with which the federal government was engaged in surveillance. After another round of public discourse the public once again largely moved on from the matter, seemingly content with the prospects of large-scale government surveillance or, at least not upset enough to convince lawmakers to revisit the issue in a meaningful way.

It’s now been six years since the Snowden leaks and America is mostly engaged in a 24 hour cycle of “Trump Coverage”. The Muller report has finally arrived and we’re about to embark on a dissection of the results of that investigation. While people will pour over it’s many pages for months to come, it’s safe to say that contents are not as damning as Trump dissenters had hoped. Republicans have seized on this to make the Democrats look bad. Democrats have moved on to demanding Trump’s tax returns, hoping to salvage some extra bad-news about Trump.

An overlooked aspect of this (or perhaps drowned out by the perpetual flow of general political coverage) is the Republican complaint that intelligence officials misused their power in various investigations into the Trump campaign and various Trump associates. While real criminal activity was found and prosecuted which is good, there is merit to the possibility that surveillance powers were misused. Even if their use was indeed fully legal, it can at the very least be argued that the powers are too broad and easily abused.

In lieu of this, Republicans should take the lead in repealing the Patriot Act. Even though some aspects of it have been walked back, the powers it grants are too ripe for abuse, and the Snowden leaks show us that the worse case scenarios are indeed not just plausible or possible, but real. If those powers were used for political gain then the problems are compounded further. Republicans can and should use repealing the Patriot Act to their political advantage AND do America a favor in the process.