The Patriot Act allows Government agents to obtain court orders for wire and phone taps, and permission to detain and question suspects for an indeterminate amount of time without trial or the supervision of the court. Many Americans, both citizens and naturalized immigrants, found themselves unjustly imprisoned and questioned about their suspected involvement in terrorist activities. Innocent people were torn from their everyday lives taken and forced to answer questions against their will. Countless other individuals have been subject to intense scrutiny without their knowledge, through unsupervised phone and wiretaps. Their private conversations and Internet activities monitored by government agents.

The Patriot Act is a violation of everything American Citizens hold to be true. If left unchecked, the power of this bill has the potential of unmaking our society. The administration should be made to report all investigations and findings to a court of law.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson said, it is stated, “…all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The Patriot Act is a direct contradiction to this statement. The Act allows the government to interfere with any suspected citizens life. Any citizen detained and questioned without legal aid or representation is a victim of injustice. This detainment and questioning is a rape of the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Patriot Act allows the government to tap phone lines and wire connections of suspect individuals. However these agencies are not required to report their findings to any court of law. Therefore any person blacklisted by the government can be monitored without the supervision of the courts, courts made to uphold the laws supporting an individual’s right to privacy. This lack of supervision is extremely disturbing in that all that is needed to do this within Constitutional law is a court order to obtain a warrant for phone and wiretaps.

The Patriot Act grants the Government a great deal of power and requires little to no supervision of those using that power. There are many individuals who are in a position to abuse the power granted them by The Patriot Act. Any vindictive agent has the power to single out a specific person, or group of persons, and monitor their actions or detain them for questioning without fear of legal recrimination. The potential for misuse of this power is too great to allow any who wield it to go unsupervised.

Rousseau speaks of The Social Contract in his writing The Origin of Civil Society, “each [person] contributes to the group his [self] and the powers which he wields as a person under the [direction] of the general will, and [they] receive into the body politic each individual as forming and indivisible part of the whole.” We as American citizens are a part of a great social contract as we submit our rights and freedoms to the direction of the general will, so long as those rights and freedoms are not abused by any within the contract, including those in positions of leadership within our communities. The Patriot Act is a violation of those surrendered rights and according to Rousseau, a violation of the Social Contract. Through that contract, the violation of any individual’s rights and freedoms is a violation of every citizen’s rights and freedoms. The Patriot Act is an instrument of violation that if allowed to continue, will undoubtedly lead to the downfall of the American way of life.