POLS 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Patriot Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
5 May 2018
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We will not need to develop instruments to measure our concepts because the data exists
on the internet.
Selecting cases:
• US Patriot Act
• FISA amendment
• Change in electronic communications act
The cases that are chosen for a research argument are incredibly important because the argument
cannot be convincing without actual examples that back one side or the other. For our particular
question we chose to select three legislations that are crucial to understanding the difference in
American privacy rights, since 9/11. Following the attacks on 9/11, the government was forced
to re-evaluate and even alter the methods in place to combat terrorism to a degree they had never
attempted before. Even though moving forward on this path would cause a decrease in privacy, it
seemed necessary to the government to pursue it for the protection of the whole country. There
were three key pieces of legislation that were changed or introduced to accomplish this. The first
was created in October of 2001. It was entitled the US Patriot Act; the goal was to use personal
information and data to detect any possible threats/ terrorist plots before they happen. While in
theory it sounded great that the government would be able to halt any bad things from
happening, the main objection stemmed from the idea that no bureaucracy should have access to
personal information. It is argued that this is a violation of the privacy granted to all American
citizens. The US Patriot Act was not viewed as being successful enough on its own, however, so
the government also proceeded to alter the electronic communications act. The initial ECA did
not include the technology that was on the rise during this time period, and so congress saw it
was necessary to amend this act to include GPS devices, chat rooms, and even emergency room
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
We will not need to develop instruments to measure our concepts because the data exists on the internet. Selecting cases: us patriot act, fisa amendment, change in electronic communications act. The cases that are chosen for a research argument are incredibly important because the argument cannot be convincing without actual examples that back one side or the other. For our particular question we chose to select three legislations that are crucial to understanding the difference in. Following the attacks on 9/11, the government was forced to re-evaluate and even alter the methods in place to combat terrorism to a degree they had never attempted before. Even though moving forward on this path would cause a decrease in privacy, it seemed necessary to the government to pursue it for the protection of the whole country. There were three key pieces of legislation that were changed or introduced to accomplish this. The first was created in october of 2001.
