Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Text of HR 3162, the PATRIOT Act

Wikipedia Article on the PATRIOT Act

Did you ever wonder how we drafted and passed a 300-plus page law as wide-ranging as the PATRIOT Act in only 43 days?

Although some of the cross-agency information-sharing practices that the PATRIOT Act enabled may be good ideas, the bad practices enabled by PATRIOT have effectively repealed much of the Bill of Rights.

Rescinding the entire PATRIOT Act would have been a good start on our path back to liberty. Instead, we sat by while Congress reauthorized much of the original act, and for some reason saw fit to allow some significant legislative creep to occur.

Do Terrorists Have Runny Noses?

Included in the reauthorization of PATRIOT was the Combat Methamphetamine Act (CMA) provision that, while having little to do with terrorism, partially criminalized the sale of a common and rather innocuous antihistamine called pseudoephedrine that has the unfortunate side effect of being a widely available precursor chemical for the manufacture of methamphetamine in makeshift table-top laboratories.

What does this have to do with terrorism, and why should it have been included in an anti-terrorism law?