Congress Should Re-Examine The Patriot Act: A Statement By The ACLU

The following statement was issued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to update its opposition to the Patriot Act.

The ACLU is urging Congress to use 2010 to examine all of our surveillance laws, (including the Patriot Act that was made law after the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001)  and amend those that have been found unconstitutional or have been abused to collect information on innocent people, including last year’s changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Attorney General Guidelines (AGGs).

On February 25, 2010, Congress passed a one-year extension of three expiring Patriot Act provisions without making much-needed changes to the overly broad surveillance bill. In late 2009, to avoid expiration on December 31, Congress briefly extended the provisions. Despite bills pending in both the House and the Senate to amend the three expiring provisions and other sections of the Patriot Act, Congress decided instead to move ahead with a straightforward re-authorization.

Despite the many amendments to these laws since 9/11, Congress and the public have yet to receive real information about how these powerful tools are being used to collect information on Americans and how that information is being used. All of these laws work together to create a surveillance superstructure – and Congress must understand how it really works to create meaningful protections for civil liberties.

The ACLU’s recent report, Reclaiming Patriotism, provides more information on parts of the Patriot Act that need to be amended.

• National Security Letters (NSLs). The FBI uses NSLs to compel internet service providers, libraries, banks, and credit reporting companies to turn over sensitive information about their customers and patrons. Using this data, the government can compile vast dossiers about innocent people. Government reports, as recent as February of 2010, confirm that upwards of 50,000 of these secret record demands go out each year. In response to an ACLU lawsuit (Doe v. Holder), the Second Circuit Court of Appeal struck down as unconstitutional the part of the NSL law that gives the FBI the power to prohibit NSL recipients from telling anyone that the government has secretly requested customer Internet records.
• Material Support Statute. This provision criminalizes providing “material support” to terrorists, defined as providing any tangible or intangible good, service or advice to a terrorist or designated group. As amended by the Patriot Act and other laws since September 11, this section criminalizes a wide array of activities, regardless of whether they actually or intentionally further terrorist goals or organizations. Federal courts have struck portions of the statute as unconstitutional and a number of cases have been dismissed or ended in mistrial.
• FISA Amendments Act of 2008. This past summer, Congress passed a law to permit the government to conduct warrantless and suspicion-less dragnet collection of U.S. residents’ international telephone calls and e-mails. This too must be amended to provide meaningful privacy protections and judicial oversight of the government’s intrusive surveillance power.

For more information, go here: http://www.reformthepatriotact.org/