Wrong. The Patriot Act doesn't violate the Constitution, or perhaps you're just smarter than the 99 or 100 senators that voted for it, and you're smarter than any of the judges that have upheld it.
When you ask any opponent of the Patriot act to specifically point to the alleged constitutional violation, they normally just mumble and go away. But if you have an argument to make, let's hear it.
Uh, darlin' -- they've struck down, if I'm not mistaken, at least two broad provisions in the Patriot Act, already. It's not holding up so good. And yes, I am smarter than most of the senators and representatives.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-09-29-patriotact_x.htm
http://www.americanfreepress.net/02_02_04/Patriot_Act_Judged/patriot_act_judged.html
In addition, four state legislatures, and 363 communities have issued resolutions that spurn the Patriot Act.
In addition, even though parts have been upheld by the courts, this is not a PARTISAN issue -- both Republicans and Democrats are against all or some of it -- the smart ones, anyway -- and while it can't "technically" respond to anything in the Constitution, because case law actually defines what's permitted, it's quite obvious that the Patriot Act violates parts of precedent (an example would be the exclusionary rule in the forth amendment) in regard to the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth amendments.
The only people who support the Patriot Act are the naive, the paranoid, lockstep Bush supporters, and the spineless, opportunist Democrats that voted for it, because they're a. IDIOTS and b. worried about how they look.
As an above poster said -- if Clinton tried anything like this every state militia in the union would be ready to overthrow the government. I'm not so overtly partisan that I can't see when ALL government oversteps its boundaries.
Like I said, though -- some people want to be ruled by an authoritarian fist.
You might be interested to know that few of these fine public servants even read the proposed legislation before voting on its passage.
This abomination was rammed through the Senate as a knee jerk response to 9/11.
It had been sitting on the shelf for for several years until the right time.
Problem...reaction...solution.