Congress to Revisit the Patriot Act

BlakeCaldwell writes "CNet is reporting that both the House and Senate are planning to review the 16 portions of the Patriot Act that are set to expire at the end of the year, several dealing with computer and Internet surveillance. They're trying to avoid the criticism they received after rushing this bill through in 2001 by holding hearings to review the bill's worth. FTA: 'One hearing disclosed police invoked the Patriot Act 108 times in a 22-month period when surreptitiously entering and searching a home or office without notifying the owner.'"

Comments

List of Expiring Provisions:

[TripMaster Monkey]

The following provisions of the USA Patriot Act will expire on Jan. 1, 2006 if not renewed by Congress:

Section 201 -- Gives federal officials the authority to intercept wire, spoken and electronic communications relating to terrorism.

Section 202 -- Gives federal officials the authority to intercept wire, oral, and electronic communications relating to computer fraud and abuse offenses.

Subsection 203(b) -- Permits the sharing of grand jury information that involves foreign intelligence or counterintelligence with federal law enforcement, intelligence, protective, immigration, national defense, or national security officials

Subsection 203(d) -- Gives foreign intelligence or counterintelligence officers the ability to share foreign intelligence information obtained as part of a criminal investigation with law enforcement.

Section 204 -- Makes clear that nothing in the law regarding pen registers -- an electronic device which records all numbers dialed from a particular phone line -- stops the government's ability to obtain foreign intelligence information.

Section 206 -- Allows federal officials to issue roving "John Doe" wiretaps for spy and anti-terrorism investigations.

Section 207 -- Increases the amount of time that federal officials can watch people they suspect are spies or terrorists.

Section 209 -- Permits the seizure of voicemail messages under a warrant.

Section 212 -- Permits ISP (Internet service providers) and other electronic communication and remote computing service providers to hand over records and e-mails to federal officials in emergency situations.

Section 214 -- Allows use of a pen register or trap and trace devices -- a device records the originating phone numbers of all incoming calls on a particular phone line -- in international terrorism or spy investigations.

Section 215 -- Authorizes federal officials to obtain "tangible items" like business records -- including those from libraries and bookstores _for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations.

Section 217 -- Makes it lawful to intercept the wire or electronic communication of a computer hacker or intruder in certain circumstances.

Section 218 -- Allows federal officials to wiretap or watch suspects if foreign intelligence gathering is a "significant purpose" for seeking a FISA (Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act) order. The pre-Patriot Act standard said they could ask for the surveillance only if it was "the" sole or main purpose.

Section 220 -- Provides for nationwide service of search warrants for electronic evidence

Section 223 -- Amends the federal criminal code to provide for administrative discipline of federal officers or employees who violate prohibitions against unauthorized disclosures of information gathered under this act.

Section 225 -- Amends FISA to prohibit lawsuits against people or companies that provide information to federal officials for a terrorism investigation.

Re:List of Expiring Provisions:

[tenchiken]

The parrallel you are looking for is there, but it is a completly different scale. The results of the reichstag fire were on a completly different scale. There were very very few protections in the Weimar constitution before the fire, and after the even the pretense (which is all it was) that Germany was some sort of republic was abandoned.

The other two factors not present was that
a) The communists were just as bad as the Nazi's at this point. The Nazi's just got to power first because Hitler realized before the communists did that seizing power thru the political system was easier then by violence and
b) Unlike common myth on /. the Nazi's did not set the fire.

While I could argue this, I have discovered that if there is one place where slashdotters are even more obnoxious about things that they know absolutly nothing about then politics, it's history.

In short, I know Nazi Germany, Nazi Germany was a degree of mine. Patriot Act is no Nazi Germany enableing act or anything else.

Re:Faithless...

[MobyDisk]

Parent is right!

They're trying to avoid the criticism they received after rushing this bill through in 2001...

That would be believable had they not JUST DONE THE EXACT SAME THING with the REAL ID act!

BTW - Who was the 1 who voted against the Patriot Act?

What about FISA

[Kainaw]

The USA PATRIOT Act is merely the USA Act and a money-capturing act. The USA Act is a slight upgrade to the FISA. It does not eliminate the FISA. The USA PATRIOT Act does not eliminate the USA Act. So, when parts of the USA PATRIOT Act expire, do they retroactively expire in the USA Act and then on the FISA? The article doesn't mention any of this at all. It just reinforces the common myth that the USA PATRIOT Act is an original set of provisions instead of the easy to discover fact (visit the Congress' website) that it is a conglomeration of provisions that have been around since 1978.

Re:While it was rushed...

[l2718]

Actually, the way to "recind" an established law is to make a new law stating that the old one "is hereby repealed" (Acts of congress are rife with this expression -- searching on THOMAS gave 50 hits from the current session alone). A simple majority suffices to enact the new law, just like it did the original one.

Even without super-majority requirements, enacting laws is still a non-trivial task. Formally Congress is always free to repeal old laws, of course. However, in practice a law with a sunset provision is much more limited than one without. The point is that they must debate the usefulness of the law come the sunset point if they want to keep it in the books.

Re:Faithless...

[revscat]

BTW - Who was the 1 who voted against the Patriot Act?

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI.

Re:While it was rushed...

[monkease]

Well, hey, it worked for my senator...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/elections/200 4/wi/

Senator Feingold (D-WI, for those to lazy to follow the link) was the only senator to vote against the PATRIOT Act. He took some heat for this, yes, but eventually even many republicans who dislike Feingold's fiscal ideas decided to vote for him. Winning a senate seat by 11 points is no small feat, especially in a "battleground" state.

My point? Not everyone is spineless. Yes, Feingold did, apparently, vote for the Iraqi spending bill with the Real-ID stuff, but next time he has a townhall meeting I'll ask him about it.

Which brings me to another point. Small groups of people CAN get heard. For instance: http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/04/12/06/231 234.shtml?tid=153&tid=219

Have you even emailed your senator?

Section 213 DOES NOT EXPIRE.

[MacDork]

A lot of arguments about the PATRIOT Act (which I do think desperately needs radical revision) are very light on facts.

A good example is the article here. "One hearing disclosed police invoked the Patriot Act 108 times in a 22-month period" would be a much more useful piece of information if we got a chance to see whether the cases in question did, in fact, involve terrorism.

Actually, the quote is misleading and irrelevant. Sec. 213 "Authority for delaying notice of the execution of a warrant" does not expire. Ever. I've posted this before, but I think it bears repeating...

The US government has been trying to slip this one by us since well before 9/11. It was shot down at least three times in recent history. First it was the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act (CESA). Then the Clinton administration tried to push it through with a meth bill. When that failed, they tried to sneak in through as an amendment to a bankruptcy bill. All the while, the DOJ, led by Reno, was claiming to already have this power without any need for additional legislation in the Nicodemo Scarfo case.

Well, with the PATRIOT ACT, they finally got it. Your only hope now is to have it shot down in the Supreme Court. Both parties have been pushing for this for some time. The People had already spoken. We consistently and emphatically told them 'hell no'. It's clear that Congress has stopped representing the people.