Government Access to Records: Overview.

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States gave rise to a national debate over the right of the government to inspect personal and business records as a means of countering future terrorist attacks. These records include library circulation records and records kept by Internet service providers of computer usage by individual subscribers. Such inspections were authorized to occur without a court order by the 2001 Patriot Act, which was passed in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks.