Following the September 1 l terrorist attacks on New York and Wash ington, Congress rushed into action and quickly passed antiterrorism legis lation known as the USA Patriot Act. The Patriot Act has been widely understood as a\sweeping\ antiterrorism law that gave the government vast new powers to conduct electronic surveillance over the Internet The Act's surveillance provisions proved so controversial that Congress added a sunset provision that will nullify several of its key provisions after
