The fallacy of American civil liberties & safety
From the Patriot Act to now, how "FREE" are Americans, really?
There is a lot of conversation on Instagram and all of the internet in general right now about due process, freedom of speech and the violation of civil liberties for both American citizens and green card holders. People are talking about the many ways in which our current administration is absolutely gutting what many believe are civil liberties (freedoms protected by the constitution) and rights that they have.
In our online rapport we have simply gotten used to screaming headlines at each other and posting opinions and while there is a time and space for that, often times opinions or poorly informed analysis expressed as fact or for “educational purposes” only serves to create more chaos and confusion in the conversation. (We’ll talk about how that benefits Fascism when we talk about Fascism).
Instead of spending my time focused on that, however, (because it is entirely UNHELPFUL), what I WILL do is talk to y’all about how we got here. We should absolutely be having a conversation about what we are seeing, the ways in which freedoms are not so guaranteed, but in order to make sense of the now we have to acknowledge that it started forever ago (COINTELPRO for example). The groundwork, on a federal level, for the abuse of power we are seeing today was laid quite some time ago, but for the sake of this conversation we are going to start with the Patriot Act and talk about the USA Freedom ACT, The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA, 2012) and The Authorization for Use of Military Force passed in 2001 because they are all working together to rob us of our rights!
What is the Patriot Act?
In order to understand where we are today we have to go all the way back to the fall of 2001 to the act that started it all, The Patriot Act. In a post 9/11 America, the nation and our government was hyper-focused on safety. I’m going to skip over my commentary on the government’s use of language and fear to justify the mobilization of our military and instead stick to the facts.
The Patriot Act, signed into law on October 26, 2001, was framed as a necessary measure to help keep the American people safe from “future terrorist attacks” by stopping them before they even occurred. In short, it enabled the FBI, CIA and NSA to
Surveil (spy on) people without their knowledge.
Monitor financial transactions that might be connected to terrorism.
Expand government access to personal information, such as phone records and emails.
Detain suspects for longer periods without charging them.
In Executive Order 13224, signed by former President Bush on September 23, 2001, terrorism was defined as an activity that (1) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and (2) appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking.”
Americans were told that the Patriot Act would only be used against terrorists for our safety, to stop potential terrorist attacks before they happened. In a shock to no one that’s not how it played out.
What Actually Happened.
Americans as a whole were subject to the Patriot Act, it was used broadly and in my opinion, recklessly and unlawfully. It violated American civil liberties. Remember the PA allowed the government to: spy on people, monitor financial transactions, have access to personal information and detain suspects for longer periods without charging them. So what did this look like in action?
Mass Surveillance
The government used the Patriot Act to justify collecting phone call records, text messages, and emails from millions of Americans—even those with no connection to terrorism. Remember Edward Snowden, the 2013 whistle-blower, who let us all know that the NSA was spying on American citizens without warrants?
Secret Court Orders (FISA Courts)
The FISA courts, secret courts created in 1978, approve/deny government surveillance requests without any public oversight. All public records suggest that nearly all (over 99%) requests were approved. The Patriot Act expanded its role.
Section 213
This allowed our government law enforcement entities to perform what is called a “sneak and peek” search. This means that they can search anyone’s home or business without even telling them. They could delay the notification until….
Activists & Journalists were being targeted
The government used the PA to monitor and subsequently intimidate and pressure activists, journalists and even those running for political office under the guise of being threats to national security. More specifically Black and Muslim communities were specifically targeted, while mosques were explicitly being surveilled without any evidence of wrongdoing (because the Patriot Act allowed for “suspicion” to be enough).
The above claim is supported by several investigations and leaked government documents.
Monitor financial transactions
Banks and businesses were required to hand over private financial records without a warrant.
Beyond the Patriot Act
The Patriot Act stripped us of many of the safeguards that are in place to protect our rights as American citizens. It laid the groundwork for our very own government to abuse their power, sidestep our civil rights and waaaaaaay overreach.
It threw the requirement for a warrant right out the window. Our Fourth Amendment protects us (theoretically) against unreasonable searches and seizures, the Patriot Act allowed the government to spy, search and seize without a judge’s approval aka a warrant.
If the government simply decided that someone, anyone, was a threat for any reason at all then they were a threat. No evidence had to be collected of said threat. So anyone who had the audacity to speak truth to power (protestors, journalists, politicians, organizers) could be surveilled and harassed for absolutely no reason other than the government said so.
Let’s just add this in for good measure- it increased and encouraged both racial and religious profiling and reinforced all of the ways racism and white supremacist ideology are regularly weaponized. Anyone believed to be Muslim or an immigrant was disproportionately targeted with, again, zero evidence. It opened the door for our government agencies to act on their deeply rooted racist beliefs (aka the foundation of this country) freely.
So now that we have a basic understanding of the Patriot Act, I want to bring special attention to parts of it and several other acts that were voted into law from 2001 to 2015, when the Patriot Act was amended and the USA Freedom Act became a law.
Section 412 of the Patriot Act
The government can detain non-citizens indefinitely if they are suspected of being involved in terrorism. Suspected- not proven. Remember, no evidence is required and terrorism is defined in a way that they could justify just about anything.
The government only has to show that it has “reasonable grounds to believe” that the person poses a threat.
The government is not required to bring formal charges or a trial prior to this indefinite detention. FYI- this absolutely violates our Fifth Amendment right & due process protection.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force passed in 2001
This law gave the President broad power to use military force against anyone associated with any terrorist organization. (Think of who is currently considered a terrorist in 2025, and how they are trying to include various social identities as “associates”.)
AUMF was used to justify indefinite detention of both foreign nationals and even American citizens.
This law authorized Guantánamo Bay detainees to be held without trial for years.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA, 2012)
Focusing on sections 1021 and 1022 specifically, which continue on the themes from the AUMF.
The Patriot Act explicitly allowed indefinite military detention on non-citizens; the 2012 NDAA expanded that to include U.S. citizens, anyone suspected of being linked to terrorist activities.
Individuals can be held without trial until the “end of hostilities” (which has no clear endpoint).
The law does not require the government to prove guilt in court before detaining someone.
*One note on the NDAA. It is a defense authorization that is reviewed and updated yearly. This means every year since 2012 this could have been changed/removed and every year congress elected to maintain these sections.
So where are we now?
The Patriot Act is still alive in parts (we’ll talk about the Freedom Act in a minute), the AUMF and sections 1021 and 1022 of the 2012 NDAA are still very much in effect. Sure, have conversations in congress been ongoing as various institutions and organizations challenge the legality of much of this, yes. Has anything drastically changed? As of March 12, 2025 when I am writing this, I can’t find anything to suggest that it has.
It is important to note that many of the provisions in the Patriot Act were set to expire (or sunset) but they were continuously extended by congress. The one thing that did change is section 215- it was sunsetted in 2015 and instead the USA Freedom Act was signed into law.
What is the USA Freedom Act?
Section 215 of the PA allowed for bulk data collection by the NSA. Remember they didn’t need a warrant, they didn’t need to have reasonable cause and they also didn’t need to name any particular individual. The Freedom Act was an attempt to rectify this. It would:
End Bulk Collection: The NSA could not acquire nor keep entire databases of phone records.
Require Targeted Data Requests: The government needed to show probable cause to get access to data related to a specific investigation- they couldn’t just go fishing!
Increase Oversight: The act required public reports and greater scrutiny by courts and lawmakers.
The idea behind the Freedom Act was to provide more oversight and balance by way of creating protection for individual privacy. In theory, ending bulk data collection would limit the government’s ability to overreach and ultimately restore/protect our civil liberties (while still chasing terrorists, of course).
What Actually Happened
In reality the Freedom Act still gives the government access to large amounts of data. The Freedom Act just changed how they go about it. For example, private phone companies are now required to store all of our data instead of the NSA being able to collect and store it all. All this means is that the NSA has to obtain a court order to access the data, which is privately held. Enter the FISA courts I previously mentioned which are secret courts that grant warrant requests.
So, all that’s really happened is we, the American people, actually now have far less visibility and transparency in the ways in which surveillance is being misused and weaponized against us.
Let’s wrap it up
We have to take a step back and look at all of these laws/Acts as a whole- they tell a very specific story. As it stands we have laws on the books that 100% have created the reality in which we currently live. The US government has created a series of laws to allow and then protect itself as it robs us of our constitutional rights and civil liberties. The government’s surveillance practices are not transparent and thus they are not accountable to the American public. These laws have been repeatedly weaponized against activists, journalists and other marginalized groups under the guise of national security, even when they have not broken a single law and are well within the letter of the law.
This has always been the reality of our government, the only difference now is that we have a sitting president, administration and gaggle of other elected officials that have no problem being bold about this fact. They are playing right in our faces and letting us know that they don’t care!
A larger conversation about these being tools of a fascist government is absolutely necessary, but will happen at a later date. For now, ask yourself when you see the government acting towards people in ways that enrage you:
“Is this actually unlawful?”
“Under these laws, is this person stripped of their right to due process?”
“What identities does this person hold that are or are closely affiliated with organizations that have been deemed threats to the US or their allies?”
“Who is considered a terrorist in the United States?” (for example - in 2016 there was a petition to deem BLM a terrorist organization and in 2020 a police guide outright named BLM a terrorist organization).
My suggestion to everyone is to spend less time responding immediately online or spending tons of time consuming hours of reactionary videos. Just because someone can record a video and it gets engagement doesn’t mean it’s right. Take a moment, pause, spend some time researching the questions that come up for you like “When can due process be circumvented and for whom”- aka when can our government Guantanamo someone.
And then remember, if the American government does xy and z, anything that feels like a human and civil rights violation, please remember that they can because they wrote the laws that allow them to, should they choose to abuse them!
Alright, TTFN!
Weeze
P.S. - While I always welcome criticism and or push back - we aren’t about to argue facts. This entire article has been run through several neutral fact-checkers and passed with flying colors. So let’s not even play that game, shall we?
P.P.S. - If you think I am talking about a particular person or event….I probably am. Our government is currently using A.I. to come for people and considering everything you just read, I’m sure you can understand why this was written in the way it was. Also, regardless of what has everyone enraged in this current moment, there are so many nameless and faceless people that the above matrix of laws is being weaponized against that we will never know about!
P.P.P.S. - I chose to make this a free resource as opposed to putting it behind a paywall because EVERYONE needs to know this. While it would mean a lot to me for folks to be paid subscribers, I know that’s not everyone’s thing and people often ask if they can “send me a coffee”. So this a preemptive “yes, and thank you”. My venmo is “accordingtoweeze” like all the other handles.