BZZZZZZZZZT! Sorry, the correct answer was, "The ability to seize records held by third parties without warrant, notification, subpeona or probable cause does violate the fourth Amendment." But thank you for playing!
you need to take your anger several decades before the Patriot Act.
Oh, I never said the Patriot Act was the beginning of the police state. That's hard to trace exactly--Washington's provocation of the Whiskey Rebellion was a step over the line, as was the Louisiana Purchase... and of course Lincoln killed and buried federalism...
Where does that appear in the Patriot Act? The most controversial section that I'm aware of is the one that allows law enforcement to delay notification that a search has been performed, with permission from a judge. The idea being to prevent tipping off co-conspirators. This has apparently been used in practice in law enforcement for years; the Act just codifies it. They have to get a court order first, and they have to 'fess up eventually.
Again, we might argue whether this goes too far, but it's not new.