These will not, however, include such pillars of U.S. criminal jurisprudence as a trial by a jury of the defendant's peers or the right to confront his or her accusers.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

While the middle finger may historically have symbolised a phallus, it has lost that distinctive meaning and is no longer even obscene, says Ira Robbins, a law professor at American University in Washington DC, who has studied the gesture's place in criminal jurisprudence.

BBC: When did the middle finger become offensive?

The Act effectively jettisons that long-cherished principle of civilized criminal law and American jurisprudence: that one is presumed innocent until (and unless) proven guilty.

FORBES: Kill the Un-American PATRIOT Act