This is a paper topic discussion I had to write for US History I.  It's about the USA PATRIOT Act that went through after September 11th.  If you don't understand my paper all that good, but it seems interesting I encourage you to go look up the act for yourself.  The only way to combat ignorance is through research!   

I guess we should first start with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.   It was first passed in 1978 after Watergate to produce legal guidelinges for federal investigators.  You had to be suspected of crmes against the government (primarily espionage and international terrorism.)
     After the September 11th attacks, the CIA and FBI were blamed for not knowing and not investigation, eventhough the FISA did not allw the CIA or FBI to investigate because the definition of terrorism stated in the FISA was too narrow.  According to Wikipedia, In order to investigate the terrorists the investigators had to prove that the terrorsts were receiving aid from a foreighn country.  Al Qaeda, the organization that planned and funded the attacks, is not a country and therefore does not fall under the strict guidelines if terrorism.  It was then that the USA PATRIOT Act violates the Bill of Rights.  Under this act the new definition of terrorism is too broad.  It can include common dissidents involved or illegal demonstrations, Some people even worry that demonstrators that demonstrate against the government or its policy could theoretically be called terrorists.
     Next we move on to Sneak-and-Peek Searches that have provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act.  Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure state that immediate notification of seized items be provided, among other things.  But with Provision 213 of the USA PATRIOT Act Rule 41 is blown out of the water!  Provision 213 authorizes "surreptitious search warrants and seizures upon a showing of reasonable necessity."  In other words the government or their lackeys (so we shall call them) can enter your home WITH a search warrant and take what they believe is evidence and not give you notice.  And another thing they may have to have that search warrant, but because of a special court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) they do not have to be public record!  They don't have to tell us about it!  They don't have to tell you about the search either!  Back that up....they do but not necessarily before they do the search.
     In several landmark decisions form courts, they have struck down certain sections of the Act (805, 505) for being vague and unconstitutional.  They have been found to violate our 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment rights.
     So all in all to tie it up does the USA PATRIOT Act violate the Bill of Rights?  Well if you call free speech, freedom of the press, human rights and the invasion of privacy our rights entitled from the Bill of Rights, than yea, it does.  But that's just my opinion...go make yours.