Statutes and Acts

USA PATRIOT Act

Criminal Law, National Security and Public Order Acts

Citation Formats

General Reference

Law Atlas. "USA PATRIOT Act." Accessed September 2, 2026. https://dev-law.interactiveatlas.org/statutes-and-acts/usa-patriot-act.

APA Style

Law Atlas. (n.d.). USA PATRIOT Act. Retrieved September 2, 2026, from https://dev-law.interactiveatlas.org/statutes-and-acts/usa-patriot-act

BibTeX

@misc{lawatlas-usa-patriot-act,
  author = {Law Atlas},
  title = {USA PATRIOT Act},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-law.interactiveatlas.org/statutes-and-acts/usa-patriot-act},
  note = {Accessed September 2, 2026}
}

The USA PATRIOT Act is a landmark Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. It expanded the surveillance and investigative powers of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies and eased interagency communication for counterterrorism purposes; the bill passed the House 357 to 66 and the Senate 98 to 1. Several provisions carried sunset clauses; after extensions in 2006 and 2011 and modification by the USA Freedom Act of 2015, key surveillance provisions were allowed to expire in 2020 when the House did not pass a further extension, and federal courts have ruled a number of the act's provisions unconstitutional.

Facts

Enacted Year

2001 1

Enacted Date

2001-10-26 1

Jurisdiction

United States 1

Enacted By

United States Congress (107th Congress) 1

Official Citation

Public Law 107-56 1

Legal Status

Several provisions expired in 2020 after the House did not pass a further extension, and federal courts have found a number of provisions unconstitutional; remaining provisions stay in force. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections