ABSTRACT
The United States of America (USA) Patriot Act confers new and unprecedented detention authority on the Attorney General based on vague and unspecified predictions of threats to the national security. Specifically, the new law permits the detention of non-citizens facing deportation based merely on the Attorney General’s certification that he has “reasonable grounds to believe” the non-citizen endangers national security. The wiretapping and intelligence provisions in the USA Patriot Act sound two themes: they minimize the role of a judge in ensuring that law enforcement wiretapping is conducted legally and with proper justification, and they permit use of intelligence investigative authority to by-pass normal criminal procedures that protect privacy. The law dramatically expands the use of secret searches. The USA Patriot Act continues the unfortunate trend of expanding government access to personal financial information rather than safeguarding it against intrusion.
