Patriot Act: Version 2005
All that remains for Congress to do to pass the Patriot Act in its 2005 version is to go to Conference to reconcile the House and Senate versions. Little was changed in the original Patriot Act and Patriot Act II, and the sunset clauses which necessitated this year's review have been made pretty much perpetual.
The Star Tribune noted the more egregious portions of the bill in an editorial earlier this week:
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. society has crept closer to Orwell's eerie world in too many ways. Its own Big Brother has been keeping a close eye on Americans -- and most have grown accustomed to his gaze.
Such watchfulness seemed only wise in the weeks after the twin towers toppled. That's when Congress passed the Patriot Act, approving in a panic all sorts of emergency surveillance tactics meant to nab terrorists in their tracks. The measure gave government power to search a private home without informing its owner, wiretap a phone without naming a suspect, secretly survey a citizen's e-mails and private records and indefinitely jail noncitizens.
These days, the Patriot Act empowers the FBI to scoop up any citizen's psychiatric or other medical records pretty much whenever it wants -- even when the citizen in question isn't suspected of a crime. Worst of all, the law forbids doctors, therapists and all other record-keepers from telling the patient that the records have been seized.
This is the sort of privacy invasion this nation was created to prevent. Yet Americans have mustered barely a yawn in response to the news that lawmakers have extended the Patriot Act's most intrusive provisions for years to come. The extension authorized official spying not just on Americans' medical records, but also on their financial dealings and their reading habits at local libraries.
Do lawmakers really believe that the best way to safeguard American liberty is to sabotage it? Instead of mastering the Orwellian art of doublethink, lawmakers assigned to reconcile the two versions of Patriot Act II should seek to banish its most un-American features.
Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that any such banishment is likely to happen. The President, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security are going to get everything that they wanted. I had thought the only chance for removing some of the most obnoxious intrusions into our civil liberties was in the Senate, but I was being overly-optimistic.
I found a pretty good timeline on all the major Congressional actions taken on the bill. [Warning: if you don't really want to know how sausage and laws are made, I suggest you not click on the link.] Here is the most outrageous of the many outrageous entries on that timeline:
"Late on Friday, July 29, the final day before its summer recess, the Senate passed S. 1389 (the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005) on unanimous consent (no debate, no amendments, no roll call vote). The bill adds to the USA PATRIOT Act many of the safeguards for library and reader privacy that have been sought by the library community since the passage of the law in 2001, including tougher requirements for searching library records under Section 215. The vote was a surprise, coming just one week after the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the S. 1389 and the House passed H.R. 3199 and just when everyone thought the Senate was rushing out the door for its summer recess. The two bills will now need to be reconciled by a Conference Committee." [Emphasis added]
I guess the Senate (all members of the Senate) thought their summer vacation was more important than our civil liberties. I think we should add this to our list of grievances when 2006 rolls around, assuming that elections will actually be held.
The Star Tribune noted the more egregious portions of the bill in an editorial earlier this week:
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. society has crept closer to Orwell's eerie world in too many ways. Its own Big Brother has been keeping a close eye on Americans -- and most have grown accustomed to his gaze.
Such watchfulness seemed only wise in the weeks after the twin towers toppled. That's when Congress passed the Patriot Act, approving in a panic all sorts of emergency surveillance tactics meant to nab terrorists in their tracks. The measure gave government power to search a private home without informing its owner, wiretap a phone without naming a suspect, secretly survey a citizen's e-mails and private records and indefinitely jail noncitizens.
These days, the Patriot Act empowers the FBI to scoop up any citizen's psychiatric or other medical records pretty much whenever it wants -- even when the citizen in question isn't suspected of a crime. Worst of all, the law forbids doctors, therapists and all other record-keepers from telling the patient that the records have been seized.
This is the sort of privacy invasion this nation was created to prevent. Yet Americans have mustered barely a yawn in response to the news that lawmakers have extended the Patriot Act's most intrusive provisions for years to come. The extension authorized official spying not just on Americans' medical records, but also on their financial dealings and their reading habits at local libraries.
Do lawmakers really believe that the best way to safeguard American liberty is to sabotage it? Instead of mastering the Orwellian art of doublethink, lawmakers assigned to reconcile the two versions of Patriot Act II should seek to banish its most un-American features.
Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that any such banishment is likely to happen. The President, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security are going to get everything that they wanted. I had thought the only chance for removing some of the most obnoxious intrusions into our civil liberties was in the Senate, but I was being overly-optimistic.
I found a pretty good timeline on all the major Congressional actions taken on the bill. [Warning: if you don't really want to know how sausage and laws are made, I suggest you not click on the link.] Here is the most outrageous of the many outrageous entries on that timeline:
"Late on Friday, July 29, the final day before its summer recess, the Senate passed S. 1389 (the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005) on unanimous consent (no debate, no amendments, no roll call vote). The bill adds to the USA PATRIOT Act many of the safeguards for library and reader privacy that have been sought by the library community since the passage of the law in 2001, including tougher requirements for searching library records under Section 215. The vote was a surprise, coming just one week after the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the S. 1389 and the House passed H.R. 3199 and just when everyone thought the Senate was rushing out the door for its summer recess. The two bills will now need to be reconciled by a Conference Committee." [Emphasis added]
I guess the Senate (all members of the Senate) thought their summer vacation was more important than our civil liberties. I think we should add this to our list of grievances when 2006 rolls around, assuming that elections will actually be held.
posted by Diane at 4:26 AM
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