Act Now Before Congress Expands the Patriot Act
Act Now Before Congress Expands the Patriot Act
Congress is rushing to vote on a bill next week to make the Patriot Act permanent, without including meaningful reforms to prevent the abuse of its expanded secret search and surveillance powers. Among other things, the Patriot Act gave the government easier access to your personal records without reasonable suspicion that you committed a crime or that there is any connection between you and a foreign terrorist.
Click here to urge your members of Congress to oppose this rushed extension of the Patriot Act.
The bill to be considered next week will make permanent the parts of the Patriot Act that Congress initially intended to expire. For example, it would make permanent the most unwise and intrusive provisions of the Patriot Act, such as those that give the government access to your medical, library, financial and other personal records, without any requirement that the federal government demonstrate that there are any facts connecting records about you to a foreign terrorist.
America needs your help now if our basic constitutional freedoms are to be preserved. Please click here to urge your elected officials not to make the Patriot Act permanent and to enact common sense fixes to the law to bring it in line with the Constitution.
This battle over reauthorization and expansion is the culmination of years of work by the ACLU, its members and freedom-loving Americans of every political stripe. If there were ever a time for you to speak out for reforming the excessive and intrusive parts of this legislation, that time is now.
Unless we can defeat this reauthorization or modify it, the chances for meaningful reforms to the Patriot Act this year will be slim. Or none.
In the days just after the 9/11 attacks, Congress was reluctant to deny the Bush administration any of the new surveillance and investigative powers it demanded.
But now, four years later, it is clear we need to apply the test suggested by the 9/11 Commission to those provisions of the Patriot Act that are set to expire. First, has the administration proved that they actually and significantly increase our security? Second, if so, do they contain safeguards to protect our liberties and prevent abuse?
The 16 expiring provisions of the Patriot Act were not properly vetted the first time, and included unwarranted expansions of federal power, yet some in Congress are poised to make them permanent with no real corrections. If they succeed, extreme provisions like Section 215 -- which gives the FBI broad access to your personal records without individual suspicion, probable cause or any meaningful ability to challenge the secret court order that allows this access -- will forever be a fixture of our laws.
Click here to urge your members of Congress to reform the Patriot Act. Remind them you are part of a growing movement, among both conservatives and progressives, in favor of common sense fixes to the Patriot Act like those contained in the Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act.
http://action.aclu.org/julypatriotactvote
Congress is rushing to vote on a bill next week to make the Patriot Act permanent, without including meaningful reforms to prevent the abuse of its expanded secret search and surveillance powers. Among other things, the Patriot Act gave the government easier access to your personal records without reasonable suspicion that you committed a crime or that there is any connection between you and a foreign terrorist.
Click here to urge your members of Congress to oppose this rushed extension of the Patriot Act.
The bill to be considered next week will make permanent the parts of the Patriot Act that Congress initially intended to expire. For example, it would make permanent the most unwise and intrusive provisions of the Patriot Act, such as those that give the government access to your medical, library, financial and other personal records, without any requirement that the federal government demonstrate that there are any facts connecting records about you to a foreign terrorist.
America needs your help now if our basic constitutional freedoms are to be preserved. Please click here to urge your elected officials not to make the Patriot Act permanent and to enact common sense fixes to the law to bring it in line with the Constitution.
This battle over reauthorization and expansion is the culmination of years of work by the ACLU, its members and freedom-loving Americans of every political stripe. If there were ever a time for you to speak out for reforming the excessive and intrusive parts of this legislation, that time is now.
Unless we can defeat this reauthorization or modify it, the chances for meaningful reforms to the Patriot Act this year will be slim. Or none.
In the days just after the 9/11 attacks, Congress was reluctant to deny the Bush administration any of the new surveillance and investigative powers it demanded.
But now, four years later, it is clear we need to apply the test suggested by the 9/11 Commission to those provisions of the Patriot Act that are set to expire. First, has the administration proved that they actually and significantly increase our security? Second, if so, do they contain safeguards to protect our liberties and prevent abuse?
The 16 expiring provisions of the Patriot Act were not properly vetted the first time, and included unwarranted expansions of federal power, yet some in Congress are poised to make them permanent with no real corrections. If they succeed, extreme provisions like Section 215 -- which gives the FBI broad access to your personal records without individual suspicion, probable cause or any meaningful ability to challenge the secret court order that allows this access -- will forever be a fixture of our laws.
Click here to urge your members of Congress to reform the Patriot Act. Remind them you are part of a growing movement, among both conservatives and progressives, in favor of common sense fixes to the Patriot Act like those contained in the Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act.
http://action.aclu.org/julypatriotactvote
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 7:11 AM
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