Taking Liberties Reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act?
by Garry Klein
In 2001, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act (USAPA). This act authorized broader surveillance laws intended to give law enforcement officials tools to effectively combat terrorism. It also vastly expanded governmental authority to spy on citizens and simultaneously reduced checks and balances on powers like judicial oversight and the ability to challenge government searches in court.
In Iowa City, petitions with hundreds of signatures were submitted to our city council between December 2002 and February 2003 supporting affirming local government’s respect for residents’ constitutional rights and educating the public and legislators about threats to constitutional rights. In September 2003, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) and others approached the city council advocating a city resolution that expressed local concern about the USAPA. The resolution instructed the city manager to report the number of persons held by local law enforcement at the request of the FBI under the USAPA and the number of requests made from federal law enforcement for library records for the same purpose. It also called on our city leaders to voice opposition for any attempt to eliminate the “sunset provisions” of the USAPA, which call for congressional review of the Act before reauthorizing it.
Our city council did not approve the resolution, but did unanimously vote to submit a letter to Congress citing concerns about the Act. About 400 cities, including Ames and Des Moines, and the National League of Cities passed resolutions akin to ours. The National League of Cities stated in its resolution “municipal governments budgets across the nation are strained and these added duties [enforcing the USAPA] constitute unfunded mandates on cities police departments, libraries, universities, etc. that cities cannot financially absorb.”
Recently the USAPA was extended until February 3rd while Congress
continues to work out kinks remaining between House and Senate reauthorization
bills. Not surprising, the points hotly contested are the same points
that groups like BORDC highlighted in city resolutions.
The PATRIOT Act provisions in question include:
- The FBI's far-reaching powers to obtain personal, medical, library and business records without showing a connection to a suspected terrorist.
- Issuing National Security Letters to obtain transactional records without prior judicial approval.
- "Sneak and peek" searches of citizens' homes and businesses.
Business Records Orders: The Senate version of the Act would have required the government to show facts that the records were connected to a suspected terrorist while the House version did not.
National Security Letters: The report fails to curb National Security Letter powers, which can be issued without judicial approval to obtain transaction records without any showing of a connection to a suspected terrorist. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 of these have been requested.
- The FBI uses national security letters to obtain confidential records of ordinary, law-abiding Americans.
- NSLs are issued by FBI officials with no review by a court or the Justice Department, before or after the fact.
- Information from NSLs – including records of innocent Americans – can be widely shared.
- While the government’s position is that there is a right to consult an attorney and challenge an NSL, there is no such right expressly granted by the statute.
Sneak and Peek Searches: The concept of "sneak and peek" searches was already constitutionally suspect before the Patriot Act was enacted, and the Report's 30-day delay provision is a clear expansion of the seven-day delay that pre-Patriot federal courts had deemed to be reasonable.
While some applaud the USAPA “as is”, there are a number of diverse groups who find it troubling in its current state, including the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Library Association, and the American Civil Liberties Union. In Iowa City we do not know how many persons have been arrested under the Act, or how many library records or other personal records have been viewed, or if people’s phones have been tapped. Enforcement of the USAPA does not allow for the light of transparency to shine in and this is troubling.
The Senate does not return to session before January 18th and the House, January 30th. This means there is a very limited opportunity for both houses to improve the Act before the February 3rd deadline. Get involved now if you are concerned about the reauthorization of the USAPA, contact me about a planned “phone-in” day to contact our officials later this month., go to www.bordc.org., or contact Representative Jim Leach and Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley directly.
Garry Klein is the local coordinator for the Bill of Rights Defense
Committee. He may be reached via e-mail at the3rdiowa@mchsi.com
or 354-2600. Contact Senator Harkin at http://harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
or his Cedar Rapids Office 319-365-4504; Senator Grassley at http://grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm
or his Cedar Rapids Office 319-363-6832; Contact Representative Leach’s
at http://www.house.gov/leach/email.htm
or contact his district office 319-351-0789.