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Yes, you've caught me - I said "secret seaches without a court order."

I should've said secret searches (which require a FISA court order) and other searches (wiretaps) without a court order.

A minor detail, but it was a mistake.

I've read the Act, this mistake was hardly cause to challenge my veracity, don't do it again.

One citation analysis, just one time for clarity - because I made a mistake.

From the Center for Constitutional Rights

http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/whatsnew/report.asp?ObjID=nQdbIRkDgG&Content=153

Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the standards for wiretapping have been significantly weakened. Two other provisions of the Act allow the FBI to use concerns about foreign agents as a pretext for conducting criminal searches without probable cause, and to extend these searches, via roving wiretap, to individuals who are not the subject of a warrant. Traditionally, search warrants had to specify the place to be searched, so as to prevent arbitrary extensions of the warrant by errant officers. This limitation applied to wiretaps too, until 1986, when Congress authorized the use of roving taps to track particular suspects as they moved. Under a 1998 amendment, roving wiretaps on a particular telephone may only be monitored when the suspect is actually using that phone. Under Section 206 of the Act, however, the use of roving wiretaps has been extended, but the requirement of actual use is omitted. In addition, under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, wiretapping related to the domestic activities of hostile foreign groups was allowed, but only when gathering intelligence was the sole purpose of the surveillance. Information could not be gathered for criminal investigations. Under Section 218 of the USA PATRIOT Act, this restriction has been weakened - foreign intelligence gathering need only be a "significant purpose," of an investigation that may be primarily criminal in nature. Together, these provisions permit law enforcement agents to do exactly what two Courts of Appeal have prohibited. Both the Fourth and the Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal have held that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "is not to be used as an end-run around the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of warrantless searches."

I still believe the USA Patriot Act to be unconstitutional.