The USA PATRIOT Act 2001

Abstract

The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001—that is, the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (hereinafter PA)—is an example of how 9/11 has been utilized to push for an absolutist security agenda (ASA) that legally posits U.S. national security as the controlling standard for international security.¹ An examination of the linkage between legality, criminality, terror, and security within a domestic juridical framework illuminates the post-9/11 security context. Law is particularly relevant when one considers that U.S. power is premised upon the notion that international society should be subject to an objective rule of law. Law is a means by which U.S. domestic security can be invested with a truth value beyond (legitimate) question. When considering law and power, it must be kept in mind that power “is exercised through networks, and [actors] do not simply circulate in those networks; they are in a position to both submit and exercise this power. They are never the inert or consenting targets of power … power passes through [actors]. It is not [necessarily] applied to them.”² Knowledge and truth are produced and reified by security measures and the order-combine from which they devolve. Legality, therefore, functions as a means of producing and reflecting U.S. security priorities at the expense of competing priorities, such as civil liberties and state sovereignty. The United States articulates a specific set of values, prerogatives, principles, and morals when it utilizes law to enhance its power. Since the post—World War II period, the United States holds itself out as the “unitary power that maintains the social peace and produces … ethical truths” for the international community.³