Council takes on Patriot Act   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

If critics of the USA Patriot Act are correct, the Fairbanks City Council may have spent more time pondering a...     Read More

The Bill of Rights wins with the Lawless team   [Fairbanks BORDC]

During this past weekend Mike Lawless, carrying a copy of the Bill of Rights in his pocket and the Fairbanks...     Read More

Proposal rebukes Patriot Act   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

JUNEAU—Inspired by a resolution passed by the Fairbanks City Council, Senate Minority Leader Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, is working on a...     Read More

House Takes Stand Against Patriot Act   [Santa Fe New Mexican]

By an overwhelming vote, the House on Monday passed legislation putting the state on record as opposing many provisions of...     Read More

Santa Fe Police Detain Library Patron   [American Libraries]

A St. John’s College Library visit by a former public defender was abruptly interrupted February 13 when city police officers...     Read More

Librarians try to alter Patriot Act   [San Francisco Chronicle]

Along with the usual reminders to hold the noise down and pay overdue fines, library patrons in Santa Cruz are...     Read More

Red Alert for Bill of Rights!   [The Village Voice]

The Justice Department ... seems to be running amok ... This agency right now is the biggest threat to personal...     Read More

Portland case could put to test Patriot Act   [Oregon Statesman Journal]

PORTLAND — The government’s expanded spying powers under the USA Patriot Act could face their first test in open court...     Read More

Judge Rejects Challenge to FBI Spy Powers   [U.K. Guardian Unlimited]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The FBI does not have to explain why it applied for search warrants to bug homes...     Read More

DOJ Drafts Sweeping Expansion of the UPA   [The Center for Public Integrity]

(WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2003) -- The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act passed...     Read More

Ashcroft Out of Control   [The Village Voice]

Many of the new security measures proposed by our government in the name of fighting the "war on terror" are...     Read More

It was a good day for the 6th Amendment   [NorthJersey.com]

Score one for the 6th Amendment. U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey ruled on Tuesday that the government must allow lawyers...     Read More

Supreme Court Justice Scalia Bans Media   [Common Dreams News Center]

CLEVELAND—Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has banned broadcast media from an appearance Wednesday where he will receive an award for...     Read More

Court stiff-arms privacy challenge

By David G. Savage
Los Angeles Times (website)
3/25/2003

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a preliminary challenge to the government's expanded powers to wiretap and search people who are suspected of having links to foreign terrorists.

The justices refused to allow the American Civil Liberties Union to appeal on behalf of Arab Americans and others who believe they may be being secretly monitored.

Monday's dismissal leaves open a possible future legal challenge brought by someone who says he was wrongly wiretapped and had his house searched.

But the move nonetheless left ACLU lawyers disappointed and frustrated.

"This is a strange situation where you have a broad ruling and no one can appeal it," said Ann Beeson, an ACLU lawyer who represented the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Last year, in an unusual court hearing behind closed doors at the Justice Department, Attorney General John Ashcroft won the legal authority to merge the FBI's crime-fighting and spying units to track suspected terrorists.

"It is vitally important that the government's intelligence and law enforcement officials coordinate their efforts to protect America from foreign threats to national security," Ashcroft said Monday.

Before last year, the FBI had maintained a "wall" between spying and criminal probes, a legacy of the Watergate era.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, allowed the attorney general to obtain secret warrants to spy on suspected foreign agents or international terrorists.

The warrants were authorized by a judge inside the Justice Department. But until last year, the government said, it kept these spying operations separate from ordinary criminal probes.

Ashcroft said that the separation was outdated and hampered the FBI in its pursuit of terrorists operating in the United States. He argued, and the special FISA review court agreed, that the new USA Patriot Act authorized closer coordination between the government's crime fighters and intelligence agents.

Civil libertarians protested the move on two counts.

First, they said, the government may be violating the Constitution's ban on "unreasonable searches and seizures." Normally, the police and federal agents can obtain a search warrant to enter a home or tap a phone only when they have evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

Federal agents do not need such evidence to obtain a search warrant under FISA. They need only show evidence indicating the target is linked to a foreign terrorist group. "FISA was supposed to apply to a narrow category of intelligence investigations. Under Ashcroft's interpretation, they can use FISA in ordinary criminal cases," said Beeson.

Justice Department lawyers deny that charge. They say they use FISA warrants only against foreigners who are believed to have ties to terrorist organizations.

Secondly, civil libertarians also object to the closed-door legal hearings on FISA. Since these intelligence probes must be kept secret, the Justice Department was authorized to seek warrants in secret hearings within its building.

When one FISA judge said Ashcroft was exceeding his legal authority, a special appeals court met to review the dispute and to rule on the matter. Outside attorneys, including the ACLU, were barred.

Still, the civil liberties advocates believe they will have a chance to challenge the sweep of Ashcroft's order in a future case.

"At some point, the government will introduce evidence in a criminal case that came from a FISA wiretap. The lawyers can challenge that as illegal, and the issue can be appealed," Beeson said.

But that will offer a remedy only for people who are indicted for crimes, she noted.

"We are most concerned about innocent victims of this surveillance," Beeson said. "Since they won't be charged with anything, they will have no opportunity to challenge it."

Close

Ashcroft: Criticism of DOJ "aiding terrorists"   [Declan McCullagh's Politech]

The Washington Post yesterday said in an editorial:  >Mr. Ashcroft may not like the criticism. But his job...     Read More

Group raises funds to send delegate to Juneau   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

A fundraising campaign began in an upstairs room at University Community Presbyterian Church Sunday when a woman whipped out a...     Read More

Ex-Intel VP Fights for Detainee   [Wired.com]

Friends of an Intel programmer who is being held in a federal prison can't help but shake their heads in...     Read More

House Judiciary Chairman Hesitant on UPA II   [FOX News]

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's plans to expand a post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism law face resistance from a powerful House Republican...     Read More

Local Officials Rise Up to Defy The Patriot Act   [The Washington Post]

ARCATA, Calif. — This North Coast city may look sweet -- old, low-to-the-ground buildings, town square with a bronze statue...     Read More

GOP calls for wider powers to track citizens   [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

WASHINGTON — With the war on terrorism lagging behind the war in Iraq, Republicans in Congress and the White House...     Read More

Libraries Rally Against USA Patriot Act   [FOX News]

PATERSON, N.J.—Librarians across the country are rising up against the USA Patriot Act, shredding records and making other attempts to...     Read More

Conservatives Rise for the Bill of Rights!   [The Village Voice]

A significant development in the movement to resist the Ashcroft-Bush dismembering of the Bill of Rights is the growing coalition...     Read More

Chief Architect of Patriot Act to Quit   [Los Angeles Times]

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is losing another key foot soldier in its war on terrorism. Viet Dinh, the chief...     Read More

Fighting the Patriot Act—Now It's Alaska!   [CounterPunch.org]

The Bush Administration and Attorney General John Ashcroft may have been able to pull a fast one in the wake...     Read More

Town criminalizes compliance with Patriot Act   [CNN]

ARCATA, California (AP) — More than 100 cities and one state have passed resolutions condemning the USA Patriot Act, saying...     Read More

Senate passes resolution questioning Patriot Act   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

JUNEAU—The state Senate passed a resolution late Tuesday expressing concern over the federal USA Patriot Act, an antiterrorism measure passed...     Read More

Alaska Passes Anti-Patriot Act Resolution   [ABC News]

May 23—Alaska has joined a growing national rebellion against the USA Patriot Act, voting to oppose the massive federal anti-terrorism...     Read More

Anti-Terror Power Used Broadly   [The Washington Post]

The Justice Department has used many of the anti-terrorism powers granted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks...     Read More

Ashcroft Defied on City Hall Steps   [The Village Voice]

"As New Yorkers living in the city most affected by September 11, we acknowledge the need to protect our safety,...     Read More

US threatens mass expulsions   [BBC News]

More than 13,000 Arab and Muslim men in the US are facing deportation after co-operating with post-11 September anti-terror measures,...     Read More

Patriot Act of 2001 casts wide net   [The Washington Post]

Long-sought details have begun to emerge from the Justice Department on how anti-terrorist provisions of the USA Patriot Act were...     Read More

N.J. Judge Unseals Transcript In Terror Case   [The Washington Post]

PATERSON, N.J., June 24—Mohamed Atriss spent six months here in the Passaic County Jail based on accusations by county prosecutors...     Read More

Report on UPA Alleges Civil Rights Violations   [The New York Times]

WASHINGTON, July 20—A report by internal investigators at the Justice Department has identified dozens of recent cases in which department...     Read More

House Takes Aim at Patriot Act Secret Searches   [Reuters]

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to roll back a key provision, which allows the government...     Read More

Toughen Patriot Act, attorney general says   [Anchorage Daily News]

United States Attorney General John Ashcroft told federal and local officials Monday the USA Patriot Act should be expanded, not...     Read More

War on Terrorism Increasingly Used in War on Drugs   [Drug Policy Alliance]

A Watauga County prosecutor is using a law intended to combat terrorism to fight the spread of methamphetamine laboratories in...     Read More

Justice Department Opposes "Sneak and Peek" Ban   [The Washington Post]

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. Justice Department on Friday opposed a bid to ban the government from conducting secret "sneak and peek"...     Read More

A tiny town shouts "Whoa!" to Patriot Act   [The Seattle Times]

TONASKET, Okanogan County—If this is a hotbed of sedition, they're hiding it pretty well. In fact, the most suspicious group...     Read More