Section 201. Authority to intercept wire, oral, and electronic communications relating to terrorism.
Summary: Allows law enforcement to use the existing electronic-surveillance authorities to investigate certain crimes that terrorists are likely to commit.
Myth: "Because the government already had substantial authority under FISA to obtain a wiretap of a suspected terrorist, the real effect of this amendment is to permit wiretapping of a United States person suspected of domestic terrorism." [Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Mar. 19, 2003]
Reality:
Before the PATRIOT Act, law enforcement had the authority to conduct electronic surveillance - by petitioning a court for a wiretap order - when investigating many ordinary, non-terrorism crimes. Agents also could use wiretaps to investigate some, but not all, of the crimes that terrorists often commit.
The non-terrorism offenses for which wiretaps were available included: drug crimes, mail fraud, and passport fraud.
Section 201 enabled investigators to gather information when looking into the full range of terrorism-related crimes, including: chemical-weapons offenses, the use of weapons of mass destruction, killing Americans abroad, and terrorism financing.
Section 201 preserved all of the pre-existing standards in the wiretap statute. For example, law enforcement still must: (1) apply for and receive a court order; (2) establish probable cause that criminal activity is afoot; and (3) first have tried to use "normal investigative procedures."
Section 201 has proven to be extremely useful to law enforcement officials, as several recent wiretap orders have been based on this expanded list of terrorism offenses.
http://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/subs/add_myths.htm
Much of the Patriot Act's provisions were already legal and were in use for drug dealers, criminal syndicates, things of that nature. Sure, it's a delayed warrant. You will not know when the government is searching you until later-- but then if you're part of a criminal conspiracy, you don't want to let them all to know you're under surveillance. Again-- this was already legal. If the Patriot Act is unconstitutional, why hasn't Rand Paul or any of his retard followers bothered to go to court about it?
The only complaint people can really have is that the government stores all the phone records. But if they can't even look at it without a warrant, then you have to rely on the idea that the government is violating the law in order to see how many girlfriends you have on the side besides your wife.
It's the hysteria from Rand Paul and his ilk that is largely driving this. During the Bush years it was the Democrats. Do a google search and you will see that the majority of complaints about the Patriot Act come from... guess who... far left politicians and newspapers, even stupid foreign press like the Guardian.
Why does Obama want the Patriot act? Because he knows his party would lose the election if there is a significant terror attack under his watch.