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Thursday, September 30, 2004

Score One For The Good Guys

3:51 PM

The USA Patriot Act is a little bit less of an abomination today than it was yesterday. The Patriot Act was as bad a piece of legislation as has come out of Congress since prohibition and was infinitely more dangerous to our vaunted personal freedoms. That noxious affront to liberty was a greater victory for the dark ages-bound terrorists than was all of their barbaric deeds including 9-11. American liberty can survive death and destruction with time, boundless hope, energy, and charity; it cannot survive totalitarianism without revolution.

While there is still much work to be done to excise the entire tumor that the Patriot Act is upon the land of the free, a federal court judge slapping down the government snoops hell-bent upon accessing your personal computer at their whim is a big step in the right direction. Below is the lead graphs and a link to an article in today's Los Angeles Times that sounds the glad tidings.

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge Wednesday curtailed the government's power in terrorism investigations under the USA Patriot Act, saying a widely used tool to obtain Internet and other electronic records from communications firms violated the Constitution by permitting "coercive searches" without any judicial review.

The 120-page ruling, by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York, came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of an Internet service provider that had received a form of administrative subpoena known as a national security letter. The FBI has issued hundreds of these letters since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The letters have drawn fire because they are issued without any court oversight or finding of probable cause and prohibit the recipients of the letters from ever disclosing that they have been received. ...

"Today's decision is a stunning victory against the John Ashcroft Justice Department in striking down one of the major surveillance portions of the USA Patriot Act," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU.

The decision marks an unusual defeat for the department and other proponents of the Patriot Act, the terrorism-fighting law enacted within weeks of the 2001 hijackings and attacks that killed almost 3,000 people.

The law has been criticized as compromising civil liberties and spawned considerable litigation. Until Wednesday's decision, though, only one constitutional challenge had been successful: In January, a federal judge in Los Angeles, citing the free speech provision of the 1st Amendment, ruled against the part of the act making it illegal to "give expert advice or assistance" to foreign terrorist organizations.

There is much more at the Los Angeles Times

3:51 PM / Editor / permalink 2 comments

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2 Comments:

The Patriot Act was a greater victory than 9-11? I think the scotch and pot is making you prematurely senile.

By Anonymous, at 5:37 AM

Dear Anonymous,

It's a shame that you have apparently lived such a disadvantaged life that you do not know the simple pleasures of a tumbler of scotch whiskey and a joint after a long day's work protecting society from right-wing ghost worshippers hell-bent on turning the calendar back a millenium or so.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment.

All the best,

Joseph

By Joseph, at 5:06 PM