U.S. policymakers in the post-9/11 world face difficult choices between striving for higher levels of security and protecting civil liberties. Recent leaks about vast surveillance programs have raised fears that the government is using powerful tools to invade the privacy of millions of Americans. Because the Patriot Act provides a legal basis for this surveillance, it is widely held responsible for undermining constitutional rights.

Based on their ongoing research on the Patriot Act, William Bendix and Paul Quirk demonstrate major failures in congressional policymaking on domestic surveillance. They argue that although Congress has generally sought to balance...]]>