USA PATRIOT Act Signed — Sweeping Surveillance Authority Expansion

President Bush signed the PATRIOT Act on October 26, 2001, dramatically expanding federal authority to conduct surveillance on phone calls, emails, financial records, and conduct 'sneak and peek' searches with delayed notification. The law passed with near-unanimous support in Congress in the weeks after 9/11. Civil liberties groups from both left and right raised concerns about its potential for abuse, concerns later vindicated by the 2013 Snowden disclosures.