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The Continuing Hunt for PATRIOT Act Abuses
Throtex writes "Orin Kerr, Associate Professor of Law at George Washington University writes at The Volokh Conspiracy that the Department of Justice is having trouble finding abuses of the USA PATRIOT Act. This follows from the fact that what the media originally aired as abuses were merely allegations of abuse at the time. Could it be that there has just been a lot of fuss over nothing?"
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Ben Franklin
I'm not the devil.. just his advocate.
The problem with the Patriot Act is that many things expressly permitted by the act would be considered abuses under more traditional views of American liberty and privilage.
Most of the government's powers are held in check to some extent via its various agencies. The FBI could get a wiretap on me, but it needed to clear it with a judge (who presumably has some respect for personal liberty, and a concern that the agency meet certain burdens before it goes spying on people). Removing those checks makes what had always been seen abuse not only easier to accomplish, but frighteningly legitimate in the law's eyes.
A government that can abuse its power, will. The harder we make it for the government to do so, the better shape we're all in.
Guess what? The government still needs judicial approval to clear a wiretap on a suspect. The Patriot Act didn't change that.
Your sig:
I want peace on earth and good will toward men.
We are the United States Government. We don't do that sort of thing.
So...not that you're inherently biased or anything, right?
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
Being more concerned with an agenda than with truth -- in other words, being biased -- is, in fact, a bad thing. Even if the intentions are good, being biased is bad.