Friday, September 07, 2007

Judge Invalidates Patriot Act Provisions

Judge Invalidates Patriot Act Provisions
A federal judge struck down controversial portions of the USA Patriot Act in a ruling that declared them unconstitutional yesterday, ordering the FBI to stop its wide use of a warrantless tactic for obtaining e-mail and telephone data from private companies for counterterrorism investigations.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York said the FBI's use of secret "national security letters" to demand such data violates the First Amendment and constitutional provisions on the separation of powers, because the FBI can impose indefinite gag orders on the companies and the courts have little opportunity to review the letters.

2 comments:

Carol said...

This is a welcome change - actually upholding the Constitution. Can you give me a hallelujah!

Jeff Herz said...

I was actually thinking about adding a hallelujah, but I did not want to bring the almighty into a constitutional issue.

I would rather keep church / synagoge / mosque seperate from state.