Systems under Stress: Donald Kettl Blog Post

Vocab
1. Patriot Act- Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. Passed in response to the attacks of 9/11 by congress and President George W. Bush. a. Donald Kettl explains in System under Stress that the Patriot Act was a rushed attempt to expand the powers of the federal government in order to defeat terrorism and please the American people. 2. 4th Amendment- Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. a. The Patriot Act rose controversy over whether or not it violated the 4th amendment with its rushed policies. 3. Right to Privacy- right to be free of unsanctioned intrusion a. The Right to Privacy was another controversial topic that came along with the Patriot Act. Many Civil Liberty groups used this to argue against the constitutionality of the Act.

Summary
Systems under Stress by Donald Kettl focuses on the American Governments response to the attacks of 9/11. The nation was in a state of confusion and heated emotion and the congress knew they had to act fast as there were growing threats to more possible terrorist attacks. The congress along with the Bush administration came out with their first response to the attacks, which was dubbed the PATRIOT act (Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism). The act created great controversy as it stretched the powers of the federal government further than ever before. The debate over the act created tension between those who wanted a vague expansion of the governments power to ensure security to any more threats, and those who were determined to maintain their civil rights and liberties. Kettl contemplates whether the act was passed with enough consideration of the rights of the American people and the limits of the constitution.

Evaluation
Since the official ratification of the US constitution the Americans values of their civil freedoms have been extraordinarily important. A bill of rights was even demanded to compromise the Constitution and its goal of protecting the nation. The fact that these rights are so important caused much debate after the 9/11 attacks. The American people were outraged that individuals who had slipped their way into American life attacked the country so easily, and demanded action from the government to further protection from terrorists. Yet, at the same time these American people are concerned with how much the government should intrude into the lives of the citizens in order to protect. This raised quite a dilemma. The

government had to devise a plan of action in which they could protect the nation from further attacks without turning into some sort of police state. The reaction of the people to 9/11 was complete horror and they realized that America had been exploited and some sacrifice of freedom would be necessary in order to provide better security. A plan began to take shape and congress began to increase the authority of the government while the Bush administration wanted to take it to the next step. US Patriot Act won House approval in October along with the senate and President Bush six weeks after the attack. The act gave the government broad new powers to investigate and take down potential terrorists. The act began to take affect and no terrorism was reported for several months to come. However, that brought up the question of did the Patriot act take government power to far? This is hard to validate because it is basically impossible to ever know where the best balance is of safety and freedom. The government realized that in order to secure the nation they had to take the risks of limiting civil liberties in the process. Homeland Security is all about balance, and the federal government believed they did what was in the nations best interest in order to protect and serve its people.