Judge Strikes Down Part of Patriot Act

Shining Celebi writes "U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero ruled in favor of the ACLU and struck down a portion of the revised USA PATRIOT Act this morning, forcing investigators to go through the courts to obtain approval before ordering ISPs to give up information on customers, instead of just sending them a National Security Letter. In the words of Judge Marrero, this use of National Security Letters 'offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.'"

Comments

Re:It's a good start

[colfer]

Repubs! Finally want to repeal it in year 7 so Hillary won't have it. Hillary with the Patriot act! Quake in fear!

Re:ahem

[Chapter80]

Sorry, Ben. That's bullshit.

Everyone deserves Liberty except convicted and suspected criminals (within reason).

Even Jeep.

Re:Contribute

[E 99]

I see the ACLU and EFF serving the same purpose, except they're the investigative/defensive arm of the general citizenry.

No they're not. The ACLU spends far more time attacking the general citizenry than defending it. It takes enough willpower on behalf of large segments of the population as it is, to refrain from firebombing the ACLU, without them being given our tax money.

Re:More partisan crap?

[E 99]

Neoconservatives have different goals than most Americans. They want a smaller government to have more power and less oversight. They want wealth to flow upward to a few captains of industry. They want to impose social restrictions on Americans. They want to turn their religious beliefs into Law. They want to keep the population scared and obedient. These ideals are not mine. I'm sure they aren't yours. They are very far from classic American ideology. Our current government has the idea that the people need to be controlled. They are leaning so far away from republicanism that they are scared of the people.

I am proud to call myself a neoconservative. The above description is so dissimilar to anything that any of us favor, as to be laughable.

Our current government want to rule without the consent of the people and without full representation. "I'm the decider" -- George W. Bush

That is abject nonsense. George Bush was twice duly elected. He is the representative of the people in the Executive Branch. He is the decider on executive issues, by the consent of the people.

Re:Second Amendment

[LordKazan]

The NRA is a bunch of fanatics that intentionally misstate the intent and meaning of the second amendment for their mental disorder.

Re:It's a good start

[MightyMartian]

That's the same argument people make when the issue of school taxes comes up. People are free to send their kids to a private school if they so choose, but they are still forced to pay for both the public school and private. That is wrong.

My tax dollars go to pay for hundreds of roads I'll never drive on, ambulances I'll never ride in, police officers who will never lend me a hand, defense attorneys I'll never need, garbage dumps I'll never put so much as a scrap of paper in, water systems I'll never take a drink from.

Welcome to society. Don't like it. Fuck the hell off and let the real H. sapiens (you know, the social species that has become so successful precisely because it has found ways of organizing itself into large-scale super-tribal structures that can foster innovation and the betterment of the welfare of its individual members).

Fuck you pathetic Libertarian types are such a sad, miserable, self-important and greedy lot.

Re:Educated Public is essential to a Democracy.

[SoulRider]

I'll agree that churches shouldn't receive government funding. However if you are simply equating their tax-exempt status as a government subsidy, you are simply wrong.

This is basically the whole reason for the separation of church and state. The government is not suppose to favor one religion over the other, having a faith based government is the fastest way to achieve oppression of religion instead of freedom of religion. Out fore fathers realized this and felt it was better just to keep religion out of our government. So the government is not suppose to support any one religion. Of course the current administration is exploiting the fact that the constitution does not have any explicit words about this and throwing the whole intent of it in our faces and spitting on it.

Unfortunately with Bush's "Faith Based Initiative" churches are now receiving quite a bit of tax money.

But it still does not change the fact that the GP is either a troll or living in an alternate reality from the rest of us. Lets see if he still feels the same way about the police after his hands get chopped off and he cannot use his precious gun. What a sociopath.