good one before the police are
             allowed to go ransacking a citizen's person, house, car, paperwork, and,
             these days (at least until 9-11) his or her electronic life on the computer
             Until the passage of the Patriot Act, the interpretation of the Fourth
             Amendment since it was written has generally taken the opposite view to the
             conduct of the British. Their colonial era "officials did not need to
             have particularized suspicions about any person or place before searching,
             nor were they required to justify their actions to any authority after the
             search'" (Robinson, 2004). If interpretation of the Fourth Amendment has
             erred, it generally has generally done so in favor of requiring too much
             proof of probable cause, especially in regard to possible criminal
             activities, not too littleâ€and certainly not none at all.'
             While there have been other measures that diluted the Fourth
             Amendment protections, beginning with Espionage Acts of various sorts
             during the World Wars, as well as significant erosions of the concept of
             probable cause' during the Cold War, some say the passage of the Patriot
             Act has virtually negated the probable cause approach to Americans'
             guarantee of protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.
             Considering the magnitude of the requirements of the Patriot Act, that
             feeling is not without bases. "Section 215 (of the act) is a fishing
             license. It can be used to obtain records of individuals or entire
             organizational membership listsâ€Those served with Section 215 orders are
             gagged from ever revealing that information was provided" (Pheneger, 2004,
             p. 15). Nor, as was the case until the Patriot Act, is a judge even
             required to weigh the probable cause' to see if, in fact, enough
             indications of criminal activity are present to order violation of the
             sanctity of citizenship the Constitution meant to ensure.
             Pheneger n...