Law Commons^™

Are There Any Checks And Balances On The Government's Power To Check Our Balances? The Fate Of Financial Privacy In The War On Terrorism, Eric J. Gouvin

Faculty Scholarship

In the three years since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, the laws affecting money laundering and financial privacy in the United States have been changed to give law enforcement agencies easier access to financial information. Although the changes to the law were passed with the claim that they were needed to intercept terrorist financing, the anti-money laundering provisions enacted by the USA PATRIOT Act are being used routinely against non-terrorist criminal suspects as part of regular law enforcement processes. Although the apprehension of ordinary criminals by any means available will sound perfectly ceptable to many, it is at …