2 Years Later | Civil LibertiesPatriot Gains (& Losses)

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.




The U.S.A. Patriot Act, the largest expansion of government search and surveillance powers in U.S. history, passed Congress without much dissent soon after the September 11 attacks. Let’s just say people had other things on their minds than the small print of a 300-page bill that John Ashcroft & Co. assured would protect us. After all, one thing we pretty much all agreed on after 9/11 was that we needed protecting.

Two years later, people are starting to twig that Patriot may take away more freedom than it shields. “May,” because nobody really knows what the Patriot Act means in practice. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about the law and its effects have been blocked or half-answered in the name of national security. It doesn’t help that proponents say Patriot is the best thing that’s ever happened to the United States, while critics say it’s effectively a charter for a police state.

So, as far as we know, what does Patriot really mean for constitutional rights?

Nothing good. Patriot gives the federal government and local investigators unprecendented surveillance powers over American citizens. That much we know. It allows access to personal information, gives the OK to secret search and surveillance, and allows coordination and information-sharing between law enforcement agencies. The moustachioed mug of “Big Brother” hovers over the whole enterprise. Critics, who span the political spectrum, say Patriot is unconstitutional and paves the way for all sorts of abuses of immigrants, South Asians, Arabs, and troublesome political activists.

But you don’t have to be an Arab dissident to be worried. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and many public librarians (with whom you do not want to mess) are freaking out about section 215 — a provision that lets law enforcement poke around in your personal records. Dahlia Lithwick and Julia Turner of Slate report that, under 215, everything from an individual’s religious to medical records can be searched without his or her knowledge (including video and library rentals, medical information, and even phone calls). Of course, the feds argue this is all to Protect Against Terrorism.

Under section 218, secret searches (and seizures) are justified on the grounds of (cue sinister voice) “foreign” ties. Here’s Lithwick:

“Now you can be subject to secret searches authorized by a secret court so long as there is any foreign intelligence component (and increasingly, drug-related offenses are deemed to have a terrorist component).”

Even if the feds (or a local law enforcement agency, or both) can’t make the foreign connection, they can still search homes and property without prior notice if “immediate notification of the execution of the warrant may have an adverse result.” As predicted by whose crystal ball? Section 213 makes it legal to secretly search and wiretap or video any criminal investigation — not just terrorist investigations.

Because Patriot-related activity comes under the umbrella of “national security,” the government can keep mum about who is being investigated. The ACLU reports that thousands of South Asian and Arab men have been interrogated and held indefinitely without cause. Slate notes that under 215, you’d never know if your records were disclosed.

A backlash is in the works. Some lawmakers have joined civil liberties groups and local and state governments in opposing Patriot’s more invasive provisions. So far, 152 communities, including three states, have passed resolutions opposing the law. The ACLU was the first to file a lawsuit, charging Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Rober Mueller with violating the First Amendment, according to Wired. And the House voted 309-118 to de-fund the “sneak-and-peek” searches set forth in Section 218.

But two years after September 11, Attorney General John Ashroft is on the offensive with a 16-city tour to sell Patriot as “a vital safeguard of American lives.” But even Bush-backer Doug Thompson of Capitol Hill Blue has his doubts:

“Ashcroft took the President’s order [to prevent a repeat of 9/11] as carte blanche to abandon the Constitution and create his own totalitarian government, one where rights to privacy no longer exists, where due process is expendable and where checks and balances get in the way.

Nobody knows for sure how many innocent Americans got caught up in this post 9-11 frenzy because Ashcroft uses the secrecy provisions of the law to block information requests and those detained cannot contact lawyers or family.”

Opposition to the law is on the rise, but Patriot has cleared a path for sneaky new legislation like Orrin Hatch’s (R-UT) newest pet project.

There’s no predicting how all this will play out, but the Patriot Act contains a lesson for lawmakers and citizens alike: Next time the Justice Department proposes to safeguard our freedoms, look at the small print.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate