Sunday, 3 October 2004 - 8:59 PM CDT
Name:
John Willis
There was one section of the Patriot Act which closely resembled something a police state might institute (and, in fact, many have). It allowed intelligence and law enforcement agencies to seize or divert a person's correspondence, demand a person's phone records, and to demand the records of various institutions and entities with which the suspect person/persons was/were known to frequent or patronize without first obtaining a warrant in a court of law; such "evidence" could then be used against a person or persons in court. The Supreme Court struck down that portion of the Act last thursday. The ruling stated that this was a direct violation of an individual's civil rights and due process, that it undermined the rule of law, and that it was in violation of, among other portions of the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, section 9 (bills of attainder, habeas corpus, etc.).
The remainder of the Act is a concentration of various powers which had already been granted, albeit in a more limited form, to the courts and law enforcement agencies. The Patriot Act isn't The Principii Fascisti, folks. It is a "scary" law, but these are frightening and serious circumstances we find ourselves in as a nation. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus for the duration of the Civil War; Frankie D. Roosevelt suspended it for certain suspect persons, groups (most notably the Bund), and every single Japanese-American living on the West Coast during World War Two; heck, Teddy Roosevelt (one of my favorite Americans) suspended it in all U.S. protectorates and extraterritorial possessions obtained by the US after our victory in the Spanish-American War (precipitated by the fierce and deadly guerrilla fighting during the Philippine Insurgency). Rule of Law was eventually restored in each case. Only the Alex Jones Black Helicopter Crew is convinced otherwise. The Act could have gone much further, but generally stayed within the boundaries of sanity and the Constitution. I would rather give a bit more authority to law enforcement and intelligence agencies than see something like the Washington Monument ("the great erection") come tumbling down. Read the Act - it really isn't as invasive as many have made it out to be. Sure, it could be abused, but so could many laws which have existed for decades and none of those are keeping me awake at night, and neither should it you. Curb those paranoiac tendencies, y'all.