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Since the early 2000s, the apparatus of surveillance and intelligence gathering in the U.S. has followed a preemptive approach instead of a reactive one. The surveillance of private correspondence in cyberspace has been no exception to this rule. However, while the Patriot Act has resulted in a looser legal framework for intelligence gathering as a whole, the legislation on cyberspace surveillance dates back to President Clinton's first term, and the 111th Congress (2009-2011) seems to have undertaken minimal efforts to protect the citizens' rights to privacy. By exploring the legal framework of the surveillance apparatus from the mid-twentieth century to today, this article attempts to show that the definition of the surveillance legislation has intensified the government's infringement on civil liberties, and has prompted an imbalance between the executive and the legislative branches. Lastly, it argues that the government's tendency to encroach on individual rights, rather than the opposition between Democrats and Republicans, accounts for such a phenomenon.