S. by broadening our defenses against conventional weapons and biological warfare ("President"), and questioning the intelligence of law officials ("Terrorist"). Advances such as these, protecting America against terrorist attacks, show that America in fact needs to raise the bar of security. The Patriot Act, however, blurs the line between keeping America safe and turning it into a police state (Nieves).
Some of the provisions and federal executive orders written in the act pose a direct threat to individual civil liberties. For instance, Title 215 allows the government "access to records and other items under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act" (Talanian). This lets the FBI examine records from libraries and bookstores to see what a suspected terrorist has read or looked up on a library's computer. Not only does this endanger the public's exercising their rights to read a book or write an e-mail, but it also prevents library staff or booksellers to inform their patrons if the FBI has asked for their reading list (Talanian). The freedom to read any book of interest or search for information on the internet, is a right that is vital to the exchange of ideas that makes this country a strong, dynamic republic. This provision has led to much protest from librarians across America, speaking out for their rights and refusing this sort of service to the FBI ("Librarians").
Another indication of the encroachment of the government on civil liberties can be found in Title 802 of the Patriot Act. It creates a new crime, called "domestic terrorism," which states that someone acting in a way "dangerous to human life" can be imprisoned ("Search"). This definition is so broad that almost anyone could be considered a "domestic terrorist." Immigrants who seem suspicious to the government could be confined indefinitely even if it has not been proven that they have done anything wrong.
