JUDICIAL SLAP TO PATRIOT ACT
FBI should need a judge's OK to get secret access to Internet, phone records
October 2, 2004
Legislate in haste, repent at leisure. That's one lesson Washington should
take from a court decision last week striking down a provision of the USA
Patriot Act that empowered the FBI to demand that telephone companies and
Internet service providers give them secret access to subscribers' records.
So blatant a violation of constitutional rights - to due process, protection
against unreasonable searches and free speech - should have been obvious to
elected officials. It wasn't. It fell to U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero
in Manhattan to spell that out last week. Marrero struck down the provision
that gave the FBI unchecked power not only to demand the records, but to bar
service providers from ever in life saying a word to anyone about the
demand. The law's gag order could be read as making it illegal for service
providers to discuss the FBI demand even with a lawyer.
The law allows the FBI to get the records by issuing a "national security
letter," which does not require a judge's approval. Law enforcement
officials have only to decide, completely on their own, that the records are
"relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international
terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities." With that, the FBI would
be entitled to secret access to certain financial and credit records and a
record of the people a subscriber communicated with electronically. Targets
would never know government officials had rifled through their files.
Marrero stayed his ruling in the case - brought by the ACLU - for 90 days,
to allow time for an appeal. But the FBI should be required to have its
snooping, and the need for secrecy, reviewed, case-by-case, by a judge.
This unconstitutional extension of police power was written into law in the
fevered, immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. More
deliberation would probably have resulted in greater restraint.
Unfortunately, House Republican leaders risked similar missteps last week
when they grafted ever broader police powers onto a bill to reorganize the
nation's intelligence community. Congress is rushing to enact that sensitive
and complex legislation before the Nov. 2 election. Such haste is a mistake.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
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| User: "Michael Johnathan McDonald" |
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| Title: Re: JUDICIAL SLAP TO PATRIOT ACT |
02 Oct 2004 07:13:50 PM |
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"Marvin The Paranoid Android" <marvin@galaxy.com> wrote in message news:<ITx7d.28916$MD5.1453353@news20.bellglobal.com>...
JUDICIAL SLAP TO PATRIOT ACT
FBI should need a judge's OK to get secret access to Internet, phone records
Can you name me one Congressman-or-women that has read the entire 900
pages of the PATRIOT ACT?
I can't seem to find one?
.
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| User: "Marvin The Paranoid Android" |
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| Title: Re: JUDICIAL SLAP TO PATRIOT ACT |
03 Oct 2004 04:01:35 PM |
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"Michael Johnathan McDonald" <abookoflife@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dd3256f0.0410021613.48839594@posting.google.com...
"Marvin The Paranoid Android" <marvin@galaxy.com> wrote in message
news:<ITx7d.28916$MD5.1453353@news20.bellglobal.com>...
JUDICIAL SLAP TO PATRIOT ACT
FBI should need a judge's OK to get secret access to Internet, phone
records
Can you name me one Congressman-or-women that has read the entire 900
pages of the PATRIOT ACT?
I can't seem to find one?
Careful ... they might be logging your internet activity.
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Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 9/28/04
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| User: "Boner the Cat" |
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| Title: Re: JUDICIAL SLAP TO PATRIOT ACT |
03 Oct 2004 07:22:27 PM |
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heck they cannot even read the constitution!!!
"Michael Johnathan McDonald" <abookoflife@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:dd3256f0.0410021613.48839594@posting.google.com...
"Marvin The Paranoid Android" <marvin@galaxy.com> wrote in message
news:<ITx7d.28916$MD5.1453353@news20.bellglobal.com>...
JUDICIAL SLAP TO PATRIOT ACT
FBI should need a judge's OK to get secret access to Internet, phone
records
Can you name me one Congressman-or-women that has read the entire 900
pages of the PATRIOT ACT?
I can't seem to find one?
.
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