The provisions of PATRIOT related solely to terror are so-circumscribed in the text of the act; other parts (like Sec. 204) are general and perfectly reasonable cleanup; for instance Sec. 204 replaces “wire and oral” with “wire, oral, and electronic” in 18 USC 2511, dealing with surveillance.

So, no, can’t really say I care.

(Now, there’s a reason Reynolds etc. called PATRIOT a granting of long-standing law-enforcement “wish-list” stuff, but it’s not unreasonable stuff. Take Sec. 204, there; it just extends existing perfectly reasonable surveillance power over foreign communications to include electronic as well as “wire” communications. The only reason it wasn’t there before, I imagine, is that email didn’t even really exist at the time the law was written.)

Then again, I’ve found very, very few complaints about PATRIOT actually justified by the reading of the text, over the years. Most people (of the leftist or loony-right variety) having PSH over it haven’t even looked at it, and are just going by what Someone Said about it.

(Like that insipid stupidity about “library records”, which aren’t even mentioned in PATRIOT, and are only possibly related by interpretation of “business records”, and which weren’t actually private before anyway.)

PIMF

This kind of thing was being done prior to the Patriot Act.

Additionally, there was probably cause, a warrant, and it was subject to judicial review.

So I’m thinking this likely would have happened with or without the PA.