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Part of Patriot Act Ruled Unconstitutional
Adam9 writes "According to Yahoo/AP, a federal judge has declared unconstitutional a portion of the USA Patriot Act that bars giving expert advice or assistance to groups designated foreign terrorist organizations. The ruling marks the first court decision to declare a part of the post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism statute unconstitutional, said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor who argued the case on behalf of the Humanitarian Law Project."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation made a very good speech last year at DefCon about the dangers of the Patriot Act.
They have an analysis on their site about the Patriot Act and what it means for us.
Here's also another article about why we should be concerned about it.
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well. - Rene Descartes (1637)
It wasn't the USSC, it was a Federal District judge.
As far as i know, unless there are political reasons to not do it, like their boss (i.e., Ashcroft) says don't do it, they have no choice BUT to appeal.
It is the policy of the Justice Department to support the implementation and preservation of all laws in the book. If an appeal rules one defunct, then they must appeal to preserve it until told its "not a priority".
Trust me, to Ashcroft and Ridge, Patriot IS a priority.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
I read through the article and it seems like the judge is asking for it to be reworded rather than stricken, and the piece in quesiton is only the expert advice portion, not the pre-existing portion concerning materials/resources.
So while the people who are jumping up and down for joy about pieces being over-ruled may have to wait for a while, I'm personally happy that we are looking at suggested corrections. I don't by any means think the patriot act is perfect, but I much prefer people trying to improve on it rather than just throw it aay all together.
Whee signature.
The US government is responsible because they sent him to a country that was not his. Mr. Arar WAS and IS a Canadian citizen.
The US government CHOSE to threaten Arar with deportation to a country that it knew would torture him if "he didn't talk"....and then made true on this threat.
This would be like England sending an American citizen, who was wrongly accused of being a spy for Israel, to Iran......and than claiming that they had no idea Iran might torture him.
"He was detained" by the US, and sent not to his home country, but by the US to be "tortured by Syria".
The problem with 215 is that it greatly expands the governments ability to obtain practically every conceivable pieces of information about anybody. Not foreign spies, anybody. And who grants this authority? The highly secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, who meet in secret, and extremely rarely release any infor about what they ruled on.
Before the Patriot Act, one could be investigated if one was a spy suspect. Now, the provision is that there is an ongoing investigation related to espionage or terrorist activity. This is a big web to spin and the FBI spins it without oversight.
Then there is the gag order that can be unilaterally applied by the FBI. Those that handed over info the FBI can be restricted from ever telling you that this info was given to the FBI.
However, 215 is not the main problem, the expansion of the National Security Letters (NSL) in the Patriot Act is the real problem. The FBI can issue a NSL without a Federal Court order if there is an on-going investigation that is taking place. Before, NSLs could be issued if it was believed that you were a foreign spy. And without any court oversight, the FBI has a "free-hand" to issue NSLs whenever they want. This is a big legal loophole in the Patriot Act.
What can one do with a NSL? The FBI can get info from your phone, ISP, banks, and credit card companies. Remember, all this without a court order. Additionally, a gag order can be issue to those companies to not disclose that they gave the FBI the information about you.