Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero today stated that a section of the updated USA PATRIOT ACT "offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers," and struck down the provision in the law allowing the government to secretly obtain personal records, the Associated Press reports.Marrero ruled that the National Security Letter provision of the Act, permitting the FBI to demand the private information and then gag those who received the order, violated the the 1st amendment to the Constitution protecting free speech and also threatened separation of powers.
As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it. --Mark Twain
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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