Pretty hilarious that you have to reach back 25 years for one iffy example that happened right after we had the largest terrorist attack in the history of the earth. It was absolutely a knee-jerk reaction, and wasn't the norm, it's very much the exception.
Please cite something from the last 5 or 10 years. I couldn't find anything recent to support your claim.
We don’t need to keep chasing this moving goalpost.
The Patriot Act is not an “iffy example”. It is the canonical one, and was subsequently reauthorized in bipartisan votes.