The USA Patriot Act was passed by Congress immediately following 9/11.

Unconstitutional: The War On Our Civil Liberties (68 minutes), another excellent film by Robert Greenwald, is an inside look at this controversial bill through the eyes of legal analysts and constitutional experts as they examine the dangers the Patriot Act poses to our civil liberties, individual freedoms, and our U.S. Constitution.

The film follows the passage of the controversial legislation through Congress, the effect it has on all Americans, especially Arabs and Muslims in the U.S., and it addresses the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.  The film also reveals the effects of the Patriot Act on both Americans and immigrants, such as Aquil Abdullah, a 2004 U.S. Olympic rower who happens to be Catholic, who turned up on no-fly lists simply because of his name; Sam Hamoui, a storekeeper, and his family, living in Seattle, who were detained by federal agents; A.J. Brown, a North Carolina college student visited by agents investigating her alleged “un-American” activities; and librarians and store owners who were pressured to release their customer records, all in the name of “Homeland Security.” [Read more…]