Final answer:
The Patriot Act was believed to violate rights as it expanded government surveillance powers, impinging on privacy and potentially bypassing warrant requirements, raising concerns about the balance between national security and civil liberties.
Step-by-step explanation:
Some people believed that the Patriot Act violated Americans' rights due to its expansion of federal government powers, which included the authority to conduct surveillance without traditional checks and balances. This surveillance could include collecting Americans' phone records and bypassing the need for a search warrant in some situations, an action seen as an intrusion into the right to privacy. The contentions specifically focused on the balance between national security and individual liberties. Critics argued that the act was not solely targeted at preventing terrorism but was also used for broader criminal prosecutions, diluting its intended primary role.
Cases like Carpenter v. United States (2018) show a judicial pushback against unwarranted surveillance, suggesting the need for a search warrant to gather phone location data, thereby supporting the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Furthermore, historical context such as the Alien and Sedition Acts shows a precedent for government encroachment on civil liberties during times of perceived threats to national security.