A little more than a month after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act. This 342-page law creates vast new powers for law enforcement in the areas of search and surveillance, and expands the powers of the attorney general and secretary of state to designate groups, including entire religious groups, as terrorist organizations. Under the new law the attorney general also has the power to detain noncitizens indefinitely without charging them with a crime, and to deport naturalized citizens without a trial. Further, at the attorney general's discretion, the names of those detained and the proceedings against them may be kept secret.

Conceived by the Bush administration as a necessary response to terrorism, supporters of the act maintain that the...