Slate did an excellent four part analysis of the Patriot Act and reached a conclusion that the biggest problem centers on the lack of accountability and openness.
The best check on such encroachments should be a free and objective judiciary. But as we have noted several times in this series, many of the most disturbing Patriot provisions do away with judicial oversight altogether, while others permit judges to act as rubber stamps in ex parte proceedings?that is, hearings where only the government side is represented.
The next best check on such encroachments is public scrutiny, and, as we’ve suggested, that scrutiny is only beginning to be as demanding and impatient as it ought. But most Americans still do not believe that Patriot has in any way affected them. So it’s worth noting that many of these provisions are used frequently?even if details are blacked out. Go back and look at the sections that ask whether you’d know if Patriot has been used against you. In most cases the answer is no.
When government is given broad power to act in secrecy, it always, always goes to far. The only ways to check those abuses is to tailor necessary security laws to be as narrow as possible when public scrutiny or judicial oversight is limited. The current version doesn’t do that. It isn’t hysterical to warn of future abuses when we have a long history of abuses when government acts in secret.