Six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act with overwhelming support: 357-66 in the House and 98-1 in the Senate. Sen. Russ Feingold (D., Wis.) was the sole Senate dissenter, warning colleagues had not read the law.

The act granted sweeping federal powers, including secret search warrants, warrantless digital surveillance, and indefinite detention of foreigners without trial. Civil libertarians questioned its link to 9/11, noting many provisions were long-standing law enforcement wishes and unlikely to have prevented the attacks. They warned the powers would be used for routine law enforcement and could be abused by a president disrespectful of norms and democratic principles.

Their warnings were largely ignored as subsequent threats—Iraq, ISIS, 'lone wolves'—expanded presidential authority across Bush and Obama administrations. Presidents gained new powers to prosecute terrorist groups, seize assets, and conduct remote assassinations via armed drones, including against American citizens abroad. Congress regularly renewed Patriot Act provisions, and the Supreme Court granted immunity to executive officials and local police on federal task forces, while instructing lower courts to defer to the president on emergency declarations.

Abuses were often overlooked, with whistleblowers being the only federal employees consistently prosecuted for exposing misconduct. The initial post-9/11 unity and faith in government obscured the gradual erosion of civil liberties. Today, a president is using these post-9/11 powers to declare false national emergencies, target political enemies as terrorists, conduct extrajudicial executions at sea, and encourage DHS officers to engage in racial profiling and harassment of Americans—all in the name of national security.