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Originally Posted by AcGold
Honest question; the Patriot Act seems to circumvent the sixth amendment what's to stop further such Acts from bypassing the second amendment?
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Excellent question. Who drafted and passed the Patriot Act and Patriot Act II? It was not the POTUS but was congress. The bill went through the usual process, as defined by the constitution, and became law when President Bush signed the bill. Any changes in law are driven by congress, not the president. So for Clinton to make changes to the law she would first need a compliant congress to draft and pass the bill through both houses. Extremely unlikely to happen.
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It seemed easy to bypass the right to a fair trial in the sixth amendment, why is the second untouchable?
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There are plenty of arguments as to the coverage of the 6th amendment and how it applies to the Patriot Act. Speaking from experience, you mention terrorism and the Patriot Act trumps pretty much everything. Do I agree with the law? Nope. Not at all. Do I think it is unconstitutional? Hell yes. Has anyone managed to work the system and and challenge the law in any significant way? Nope. Just like FISA courts I think the way the lower courts give a warrant to anyone, just because they mention the word terror, is a travesty. But the law is law and became law through the process. You don't like the law, blame congress as they were the ones who failed to properly vet the language, language given to them by a Washington think tank. You can hate the law, but it was congress' fault. If you want to crap on Bush's forehead for anything associated with that law it would only be because he did not veto the bill.