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9/11
On September 11th, 2001 everything was serene until the fateful plane crash that will be dubbed as "one of the worst days in US history" as two planes crashed into the World Trade Centers and a third plane crashed somewhere on the pentagon. This event was the marking point for the Patriot act. -
The writing of the act
The first draft of the patriot act was shown to the house on the second of October -
Uniting and Strengthening America Act
The act was passed 10 days later in order to, as the current president of the time puts it, defend the homeland -
The powers of the patriot act (Example)
FBI agents used the provisions granted to them by the patriot act to search and secretly examine the home of Brandon Mayfield, who was wrongfully jailed for two weeks on suspicion of involvement in the Madrid train bombings. This lead to controversy as to how far could the government go with surveillance of a suspected person of interest. -
Doe .vs. Gonzales
Library Connection, a nonprofit consortium of 27 libraries in Connecticut, known as the Connecticut Four worked with the ACLU to lift a gag order for library records, challenging the government's power under Section 505 to silence four citizens who wished to contribute to public debate on the PATRIOT Act. -
The first renewal
The renewal of the bill was introduced on 7/11/2005, just 4 years later from the passing of the bill, this renewal had many changes to the act include but are not limited to, Amending the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Amending FISA to apply provisions governing the duration of an order for electronic surveillance or a physical search to surveillance targeted against a foreign power who is not a U.S. person, and many more. -
The passing of the renewal
The renewal was tweaked and "perfected" during the time period between 2005-2006 and became public law on 03/09/2006 -
PATRIOT Sunsets Extension Act of 2011
Another extension was introduced which amends the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 to extend until June 1, 2015 and it also amends the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to extend until June 1, 2015 both of which had minor changes to them from their previous iterations -
Passing of the 2011 "Sunset" renewal plan
On the 26th of May the renewal of the Patriot act was passed by the current president of the time, President Obama with the signing and passing of the renewal became public law and the act was extended to be renewed in another 4-5 years -
Renewal of 2015
Another renewal of the Patriot act, this adds new things to the Patriot act since the lack of approval from congress has lead to a lot of parts of the act to expire. Once again Obama signed this renewal -
What now?
The act now is in a strange place as it is growing in controversy and in support, nobody knows how this act will evolve or maybe even devolve, only time will tell...
