usapa

the USA PATRIOT Act and its effect on… Canadians?

Oddly, the small goverment folks and the big government folks tend to agree on the downsides to the invasiveness of the USA PATRIOT Act. An article from everyone’s favorite Libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute.

Thanks to excessiveness in some provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the United States is reversing its global orientation from a beacon of freedom to the paragon of a surveillance society. [thanks jack]

Ashcroft resigns

Posted on 09Nov04 by jessamyn

John Ashcroft — the man who called librarians “hysteric” — has resigned.

“The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved,” Ashcroft wrote in a five-page, hand-written letter to Bush.

FBI called for margin writing, library has nothing to show them

Posted on 08Oct04 by jessamyn

After all the huffing and puffing about the USAPA and our rights versus national security, it’s going to be interesting to see how the case of the little library with the book with the sketchy bin Laden quote in the margin turns out. Looks like it’s pretty well stalled for now since the library doesn’t keep borrower records more than a week. Nothing to see here, move along. [thanks all]

from the mailbag, don’t mess with librarians

Posted on 05Oct04 by jessamyn

From my friend the law professor. “Last night I went to a discussion among a famous local Rabbi (who is also a professor), Jamie Gorelick (member 9/11 Commission and former Assist. Attny Gen. for Clinton), and Viet Dinh (G-town law prof, former AA General for Bush, author of the USA Patriot Act, and poster boy for conservative causes…). Viet made a comment at one point that I think you would like — he said what he had learned from the response to the Patriot Act was ‘Don’t mess with librarians.'”

gag orders unconstitutional says federal court. duh, says jessamyn.

Posted on 29Sep04 by jessamyn

Federal court finds gag order provision of Section 505 of the USA PATRIOT Act [a gag order eeerily close to the one found in Section 215] to be an “unconstitutional prior restraint” on free speech.

The ACLU noted that the Patriot Act provision was worded so broadly that it could effectively be used to obtain the names of customers of websites such Amazon.com or Ebay, or a political organization’s membership list, or even the names of sources that a journalist has contacted by e-mail…. Judge Marrero’s decision enjoins the government from issuing National Security Letters or from enforcing the gag provision. The judge stayed his ruling for 90 days in order to afford the government an opportunity to raise objections in the district court or the Second Circuit Court of Appeal.