This week marks the Patriot Act's 10th anniversary. It's certainly not an anniversary to celebrate.
The Patriot Act was thrown together in just 45 days, and Americans have been paying the price ever since.
Government surveillance powers now pervade every corner of our lives.
And despite repeated chances to eliminate or reform it, lawmakers have refused to make any real changes.
To get an idea of what the Patriot Act has accomplished, take a look at this ACLU infographic. More than 190,000 National Security Letters have been issued without court approval or oversight, allowing the government to snoop into Americans' correspondence, computer records and more. The result? One terror conviction. One.
And that's just one example of how the Patriot Act has allowed for government spying on Americans with little to no resulting increase in our safety.
Learn more through National ACLU's blog series.
