How to Dismantle the Surveillance State After the Patriot Act

How to Dismantle the Surveillance State After the Patriot Act
Today marks 20 years of the so-called “Patriot Act,” a law passed to “deter and punish” suspected terrorists in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Many provisions of the law were unconstitutional, many were ineffective. In fact, in 2015 a subsequent law replaced the act. Taken as a whole, however, the effect of the Patriot Act was to cheat U.S. citizens out of their civil rights and cheapen American democracy.It’s time to dismantle the surveillance state engendered by the Patriot Act. It’s also time to invest in and build alternative technologies that would make the law (partially) irrelevant.…