Patriot Act II
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The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 was draft legislation written by
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
during the
George W. Bush administration George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following a narrow victory over Democratic ...
, under the tenure of
United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...
John Ashcroft John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, lobbyist and former politician who served as the 79th U.S. Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2005. A former U.S. Senator from Missouri and the 50th ...
. The
Center for Public Integrity The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to reveal abuses of power, corruption and dereliction of duty by powerful public and private institutions in order to ...
obtained a copy of the draft marked "confidential" on February 7, 2003, and posted it on its
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along with commentary. It was sometimes called Patriot II, after the
USA PATRIOT Act The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the Patriot Act) was a landmark Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appro ...
, which was enacted in 2001. It was never introduced to the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
. The draft version of the bill would have expanded the powers of the
United States federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fe ...
while simultaneously curtailing
judicial review Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...
of these powers. Members of the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
said that they had not seen the drafts, though the documents obtained by the CPI indicated that Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Dennis Hastert and
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Dick Cheney had received copies. Provisions of the draft version included: *Removal of court-ordered prohibitions against police agencies spying on domestic groups. *The
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
would be granted powers to conduct searches and surveillance based on intelligence gathered in foreign countries without first obtaining a court order. *Creation of a DNA database of suspected
terrorists Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
. *Prohibition of any public disclosure of the names of alleged terrorists including those who have been arrested. *Exemptions from
civil Civil may refer to: *Civic virtue, or civility *Civil action, or lawsuit * Civil affairs *Civil and political rights *Civil disobedience *Civil engineering *Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism *Civilian, someone not a membe ...
liability for people and businesses who voluntarily turn private information over to the government. *Criminalization of the use of
encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can de ...
to conceal incriminating communications. *Automatic denial of
bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countrie ...
for persons accused of terrorism-related crimes, reversing the ordinary
common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...
burden of proof principle. Persons charged with terrorists acts would be required to demonstrate why they should be released on bail rather than the government being required to demonstrate why they should be held. *Expansion of the list of crimes eligible for the death penalty. *The Environmental Protection Agency would be prevented from releasing "worst-case scenario" information to the public about chemical plants. *
United States citizens Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...
whom the government finds to be either members of, or providing material support to, terrorist groups could have their citizenship revoked and be
deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
to foreign countries. Some provisions of this act have been tacked onto other bills such as the Senate Spending bill and subsequently passed. The
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee have all been vocal opponents of the PATRIOT Act of 2001, the proposed (as of 2003) PATRIOT 2 Act, and other associated legislation made in response to the threat of domestic terrorism that it believes violates either the letter and/or the spirit of the U.S. Bill of Rights. On January 31, 2006, the Center for Public Integrity published a story on its website that claimed that this proposed legislation undercut the Bush administration's legal rationale of its NSA wiretapping program.


See also

* ADVISE * National security *
United States Bill of Rights The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution and written to address the objections rai ...
*
COINTELPRO COINTELPRO (syllabic abbreviation derived from Counterintelligence, Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of Covert operation, covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation ( ...
*
Bill C-51 (41st Canadian Parliament, 2nd Session) The ''Anti-terrorism Act, 2015'', introduced and commonly referred to as Bill C-51, is an act of the Parliament of Canada passed by the Harper government that broadened the authority of Canadian government agencies to share information about in ...


External links


Original 2003 report
from the
Center for Public Integrity The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to reveal abuses of power, corruption and dereliction of duty by powerful public and private institutions in order to ...
including draft copies of the legislation.
March 17, 2003 letter in opposition to DSEA
from a coalition of organizations from the Center for Democracy and Technology
Analysis of "Patriot II"
from the Electronic Frontier Foundation {{DEFAULTSORT:Domestic Security Enhancement Act Of 2003 Privacy law in the United States Patriot Act United States proposed federal legislation