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The USA Patriot Act
The USA Patriot Act (Patriot Act) is the cornerstone of the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism efforts. However, there are many provisions of the Act that simply do not meet the basic test of maximizing our security and preserving our civil liberties:
The Patriot Act Defined
1. The overly broad definition of "terrorism." The Act creates a federal crime of "domestic terrorism" that broadly extends to "acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws" if they "appear to be intended . . . to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion," and if they "occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States." This definition could easily be used to describe many forms of civil disobedience, including legitimate and peaceful protest.
2. The indefinite detention of immigrants based on the attorney general’s certification of a danger to national security. This is a harmful provision with language so vague that even the existence of judicial review would provide no meaningful safeguard against abuse.
3. Expanded wiretap authority. The new legislation minimizes judicial supervision of law enforcement wiretap authority by permitting law enforcement to obtain the equivalent of blank search warrants, and by authorizing intelligence wiretaps that need not specify the phone to be tapped or be limited to the suspect’s conversations.
Under current law, authorities can require a telephone company to reveal numbers dialed to and from a particular phone simply by certifying that this information is "relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation." This is far less than the probable cause standard that governs most searches and seizures. The new law also extends this low level of proof to Internet communications, which unlike a telephone number, can reveal personal and private information, such as the Internet sites an individual has visited. Once this standard is applied to the Internet, law enforcement officers will have unprecedented power to monitor what citizens do online, thereby opening a "back door" on the content of personal communications.
4. The use of "sneak and peek" searches to circumvent the Fourth Amendment. Under this segment of the legislation, law enforcement officials could enter your home, office, or other private place and conduct a search, take photographs, and download your computer files without notifying you until after the fact. This delayed notice provision undercuts the spirit of the Fourth Amendment and the need to inform individuals when their privacy is invaded by law enforcement authorities.
5. The evisceration of the wall between foreign surveillance and domestic criminal investigation. The new legislation gives the director of central intelligence the power to manage intelligence gathering in America and mandates the disclosure of terrorism information obtained by the FBI to the CIA—even if it involves law-abiding U.S. citizens.