Title: Repeal the Patriot Act: Legislation repugnant to the American Revolution and Constitution - Washington Times
Headings: Repeal the Patriot Act: Legislation repugnant to the American Revolution and Constitution
Repeal the Patriot Act: Legislation repugnant to the American Revolution and Constitution
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
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Content: Yet, in times of crisis, we have supinely permitted the federal government to invade our privacy on a scale never approached by the folks who brought the Stamp Act to our ancestors. After 9/11, the George W. Bush administration offered the Patriot Act to Congress. It was crafted in secrecy and enacted in infidelity to the Constitution. Members of the House of Representatives had 15 minutes to read its 300+ pages and no time for serious floor debate. The one senator who spoke out against it was driven from office. Section 505 of the Patriot Act permits federal agents to bypass the requirements of the Fourth Amendment and to issue their own search warrants. Those agent-written warrants are not based on probable cause of crime but rather on a representation by one agent to another of governmental needs — the same lame standard used by the secret London courts that issued writs of assistance. Since 2001, federal agents have issued more than 300,000 of these search warrants — which they call National Security Letters — to custodians of financial records. In 2004 alone, 56,507 agent-written search warrants were issued. Those custodians include financial institutions, telecom providers, computer service providers, supermarkets, credit card issuers, health care insurers and providers, legal service providers, local and state governments, and even the Post Office.