Another judge has struck down provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. The unconstitutional infringement of civil liberties passed in a rush shortly after September qqth eviscerated the Fourth Amendment and allowed police and investigators unlawful powers to search ans seizure without proving probable cause. This case is interesting in that the action was brought by the man falsely accused of having participated in the Madrid bombings.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the government cannot do the things it has been doing because the Act "permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."
The Fourth Amendment is important. Your home is your castle and no law enforcement official can enter your home and conduct a search without showing a judge it has good reason to believe you have committed a crime. The same goes with searching you or your vehicle. Americans cannot be routinely stopped and frisked by police. The Fourth Amendment prevents this from happening, or at least it did until the Patriot Act passed.
I've always found it interesting the complicated legislation was created so quickly after 9/11. It turns out it wasn't, it was sitting on the shelf at one of the right wing think tanks ready for introduction at a propitious moment. It was dusted off and passed in the hysteria following the terror attacks. I'm also reminded of the story a reporter did recently after going on a cruise sponsored by The National Review. The common theme expressed by the right wing leaders on that ship were very definitively anti-democratic and pro fascist. Hmmmm....
Congress and the White House need to learn a lesson from the recent court rulings striking down their infringements of civil liberties: there's only one method for changing the constitution and that's amending it. If they feel that strongly about curtailing our civil liberties they must go through the laborious process of convincing the people to do so. They do not have the power to shred the Bill of Rights on their own. If you come after my rights you're going to have a fight on your hands.
John
Those of us who have paid attention to the political debate for the last few decades recognize that the so-called Patriot Act, and other laws such as the environmental (destruction) legislation
passed during the last 6 years, includes proposals made by ultraconservatives previously. The reason they were able to pass now is that G. Bush provided the fertilizer necessary to allow them to thrive. Haven't you noticed that, even though he may be away from his ranch, he never loses that smell of manure?
Posted by: Lee Levan | September 27, 2007 at 05:53 PM
Is that what the stench is? I thought it was from all the dead bodies in Iraq.
Posted by: John Morgan | September 28, 2007 at 01:01 AM