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   [Los Angeles Times]

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a preliminary challenge to the government's expanded powers to wiretap and search people...     Read More

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!

By DAVID LINDORFF
CounterPunch.org (website)
5/14/2003

The Bush Administration and Attorney General John Ashcroft may have been able to pull a fast one in the wake of 9/11, winning passage of the draconian and grotesquely named USA PATRIOT Act, but a grass-roots resistance movement is starting to blow up in the administration's face.

As of today, 104 towns, cities and even the state of Hawaii, have passed resolutions in defense of the Bill of Rights which in often forceful language instruct state and local law enforcement not to participate in the act's assaults on civil liberties. The latest jurisdiction to consider such fight-back legislation is the state of Alaska, a bastion of conservative libertarianism. The city of Fairbanks has already passed its own resolution, and another is being considered in Anchorage, where key sponsors are representatives of the NAACP and the NRA.

But the language of the bill just passed by the state's House of Representatives, and now being debated by the state Senate, is powerful indeed.

House Joint Resolution No. 22 reads, in part:

"It is the policy of the State of Alaska to oppose any portion of the USA PATRIOT Act that would violate the rights and liberties guaranteed equally under the state and federal constitutions; and S in accordance with Alaska state policy, an agency or instrumentality of the State of Alaska, in the absence of reasonable suspicion of criminal activity under Alaska State law, may not (1) initiate, participate in, or assist or cooperate with an inquiry, investigation, surveillance, or detention, (2) record, file, or share intelligence information concerning a person or organization, including library lending and research records, book and video store sales and rental records, medical records, financial records, student records, and other personal data, even if authorized under the USA PATRIOT Act, (3) retain such intelligence information; (and that) an agency or instrumentality of the state may not, (1) use state resources or institutions for the enforcement of federal immigration matters, which are the responsibility of the federal government; (2) collect or maintain information about the political, religious, or social views, associations, or activities of any individual, group, association, organization, corporation, business, or partnership, unless the information directly relates to an investigation of criminal activities and there are reasonable grounds to suspect the subject of the information is or may be involved in criminal conduct; (3) engage in racial profiling; law enforcement agencies may not use race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin as factors in selecting individuals to subject to investigatory activities except when seeking to apprehend a specific suspect whose race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin is part of the description of the suspect."

The bill goes on to say the state legislature implores the United States Congress "to correct provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act and other measures that infringe on civil liberties, and opposes any pending and future federal legislation to the extent that it infringes on Americans' civil rights and liberties."

If passed by the state legislature's upper house, copies of resolution—a powerful slap at the civil liberties assault by the federal government—will be officially sent to the President Bush, Attorney General Ashcroft, the governor of Alaska, Frank Murkowski, and to the state's three-member congressional delegation.

Ashcroft and his minions appear to be worried about the wildfire civil liberties defense movement that has sprung up against his campaign to gut the Bill of Rights. When Ithaca, NY's city council recently passed its own version of a Bill of Rights defense resolution, it promptly received a letter from the FBI's Albany regional office claiming that the bill was not needed, since "As you know, FBI investigations are scrutinized by the courts to ensure that proper Constitutional standards are maintained," and that "Unlike foreign intelligence services, FBI investigative techniques must be sanctioned by judges."

Of course, this is a blatant falsehood, since Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act expressly allows G-men to rifle through library and video store records without a warrant and without showing "probably cause"—precisely the kind of thing that has prompted all these state and local resolutions.

The strategy behind the Bill of Rights protection movement is to present congressional delegations with evidence of widespread support for civil liberties, so that they will develop the spine needed to overturn the USA PATRIOT Act, or at least let it expire in 2004. So far over 11 million Americans live in jurisdictions which have passed such resolutions, and the campaign is scarcely a year old as yet.

Close

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