Civil Liberties and the Patriot Act

by Jonny S.

In November 2001, forty-five days after 9/ 11, Congress passed, without much consideration, the USA-Patriot Act. Four provisions in that Act, in particular, have raised civil liberties concerns. In 1932 Adolph Hitler issued the similar "Enabling Act". allowing him the power to deny the civil liberties of any citizen in Germany for the protection of the state.

USA-Patriot Act

"Law enforcement officers can now obtain a secret search warrant to enter your home or office to conduct a search, take photographs, and download your computer files without notifying you until after the fact."

"The government may now obtain student records and records of what books you have checked of the public library or books you have purchased in a bookstore, based on a certification by a Law enforcement agent that the records are relevant to an investigation - again without notice to the student or the library patron or bookstore customer."

"The Act authorizes detention of US citizens for seven days without any judicial review and it allows non citizens to be detained indefinitely without any meaningful judicial review."

These provisions of the Act were created in a time of widespread panic and confusion to give the government more power over individuals. They resulted in the loss of civil liberties such as the right to privacy and restricted the freedom of personal choice.The positive affects of the Act are that the government can now freely monitor suspected terrorists without their knowledge.

German Enabling Act

"On March 23rd of 1932, the Reichstag overwhelmingly approved, by a vote of 441 to 94, a bill entitled "Law for Terminating the Suffering of People and Nation" also known as the Enabling act. It was short and to the point . It "enabled" Hitler to punish anyone whom he considered an enemy of the state. The Act also included that "Laws passed by the government may deviate from the constitution."

The enabling Act was created by Hitler to help him gain control over jews and effectively strip them of all civil liberties. The Act also gave the common citizen the feeling of superiority over jews thus legalizing the idea of racism.The enabling Act gave citizens of Germany a sense of power over Jews and allowed Hitler to target them openly.

The similarities between these two Acts are that they were created in a time of panic to help the government gain control over the nation. Another is that they both target an ethnic group and cause fear in the citizens so that they do not attempt to question their leaders actions.

The differences are that the two acts were created under different circumstances for example: Germany was just coming out of WW1 and was already angry at certain ethnic groups which allowed Hitler to create a harsher act and openly target the Jews whereas the USA had no predisposed anger towards other nations which forced Bush to create an Act that was easy for the American people to deal with.