2 Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful

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Cypress

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2 Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful

By WILLIAM McCALL
Associated Press Writer


PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- 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."

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.



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PATRIOT_ACT_LAWSUIT?SITE=WIFON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
 
Crap. I actually came on tonight to post this... And wound up getting caught up in other things!

Geez.
 
However, with SCOTUS firmly in the grip of the Cons now, I don't know how many of these challenges will be upheld, if they go to the higher court. I mean, Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, and Alito? We know pretty much in general how they will vote.
 
Cypress said:
However, with SCOTUS firmly in the grip of the Cons now, I don't know how many of these challenges will be upheld, if they go to the higher court. I mean, Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, and Alito? We know pretty much in general how they will vote.
Click to expand...
I think this one wouldn't be taken up by them, it is IMO a sound ruling.
 
Cypress said:
However, with SCOTUS firmly in the grip of the Cons now, I don't know how many of these challenges will be upheld, if they go to the higher court. I mean, Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, and Alito? We know pretty much in general how they will vote.
Click to expand...

It's now 4, used to be 3.

Then again, it's basically like four Scalias now. Rehinquest was at least sometimes a voice of reason.


This isn't really the Robert court, though. This is the Anthony Kennedy court. All the other guys vote in opposite ways, Anthony Kennedy maks an actual decision.
 
Unfortunately, Anthony Kennedy was also the conservative swing, in contrast to O'Conner's more liberal swing vote. I honestly don't know what O'Conner was doing. Does she even know how much the nation was depending on her?
 
I think kennedy is pretty much on board with the con majority on issues of civil rights. Though, I could be wrong.
 
Yep and the guy who was screwed got about 2 mil tax money. Too bad it did not come out of all the congressmens pay that voted for the pile of crap fatherland security bill.
 
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