An Overview of the USA Patriot Act

The USA Patriot Act, which is projected and enacted with the purpose of creating fundamental changes in order to surveillance, combating terrorism and enhancement of security, caused serious concerns regarding civil liberties, due to the excessive use of surveillance, searching records and data and using them. The legislation of this Act within a few weeks after the September 11th attacks, led to increased powers and authorizations of government in performing anti-terrorism investigations. The Codification and enforcement of the Patriot Act, was followed by a wave of opposing and supporting criticisms in this regard, and people and authorities were faced by many legal and social challenges. The subject of this article is a brief review of the history, general chapters, changes of the laws of the United States of America due to enactment and enforcement of the mentioned Act and finally, sunning up the positive and negative points of it.