Wednesday, September 26, 2007

That Damned Bill Of Rights Again

First the national security letters. Now this. Annoying thing, that Constitution. AP (09.26.07):
"Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, 'now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment.'"

2 Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful

"Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield sought the ruling in a lawsuit against the federal government after he was mistakenly linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004."

"The federal government apologized and settled part of the lawsuit for $2 million after admitting a fingerprint was misread. But as part of the settlement, Mayfield retained the right to challenge parts of the Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the authority of law enforcers to investigate suspected acts of terrorism."

Labels:

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have you heard the howling yet? I'm sure there's going to be howling over this...

Just remember, there's a foreign key somewhere that connects your name with my fingerprints. This ain't all hypotheticals, you know?

10:59 PM  
Blogger knobboy said...

Now that explains a lot!

7:08 AM  

Post a Comment