Securing America and Protecting civil Liberties Essay

Securing America and Protecting civil Liberties - Essay Example This essay discusses that the signing of the Patriot Act; into law in the year 2001 gave the US government authority to obtain personal information regarding US citizens and permitted the government to detain strangers deemed as a risk to the state security. The holding of these individuals can be without any public acknowledgment. The federal law enforcing agencies have a wiretap authority, which access student readings in the library and internet usage. This shows a restriction of the civil liberties. Some provisions of the Act allow the installation of a formidable tracking gadget capable of intercepting all kinds of internet activity, which include web page activity, e-mail messages and internet telephone communication. The Act was passed as a result of terrorists attack earlier in the period. The Act reduced daily freedoms of Americans and expanded the authority of the secretary of the treasury. The secretary was to control financial transactions of foreign individuals and entit ies. The First Amendment comprises several vital rights that guarantee an individual’s basic civil liberties such as freedom to speech, freedom to associate, freedom of the press, and freedom to religion. The civil liberties have protection against government restriction and interference by other individuals. The provisions of the First Amendment were first written when there were no radios, computers, televisions and other communication gadgets. Changes in the First Amendment have redefined and reinterpreted the entitlement to free speech and press. The rights of speech and press are not absolute (Taylor, 2005). According to the interpretation of the court about the changes in the First Amendment, freedom to speech or press can be denied in extreme cases. Another change in the First Amendment is against an individual facing a fair trial. The changes provide that individuals accused of terrorism must not be released on bail. This change will affect those individuals arrested under suspicion that they are terrorists, but they are not. In such a case, there will be no freedom to a fair trial. Another change that occurred to the First Amendment was a change of the provision permitting individuals to have the freedom to privacy (Savage, 2009). According to the changes made, the FBI had authority to access the internet messages, financial statements, and business records of an individual suspected to be a terrorist without the suspects knowledge or permission. The Fourth Amendment protects the Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. However, with the signing of the Patriots Act, the Fourth Amendment was changed with regard to the right of conducting searches and seizures. The change allowed citizens to be seized on the ground that the individual is suspected to be a terrorist. Any individual suspected to be a terrorist is searched without allowing the FBI to conduct the search. The searches conducted by the FBI may not be reasona ble, but the change was allowed (Savage, 2009). Another change that occurred was the procedure that applied to individuals charged with a crime. The change that occur