"Now is not the time to allow simplistic notions of 'civil liberties' to get in the way of our battle with the enemies of freedom."
- Attorney General John AshcroftUSA Patriot Act Boosts Government Powers While Cutting Back on Traditional Checks and Balances by the ACLU
The PATRIOT Act
- "gives the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the power to designate domestic groups as terrorist organizations and deport any non-citizen who belongs to them."
- "Leads to large-scale investigations of American citizens for "intelligence" purposes."
THE USA PATRIOT ACT: A CIVIL LIBERTIES BRIEFING
* It creates a broad new crime of "domestic terrorism" which is defined in Section 802 as "activities that (A) involves acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the US or of any state; (B) appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping."* It permits investigations based on lawful First Amendment activity if that activity can be tied somehow to intelligence purposes.
* It undermines the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment by eroding the line between intelligence gathering and gathering evidence for a criminal proceeding, and expands the ability of the government to spy through wiretaps, computer surveillance, access to medical, financial, business and educational records and secret searches of homes and offices.
* Americans engaged in civil disobedience or another form of protest activity might be charged with "domestic terrorism" if violence erupts
Section by section analysis of the Patriot Act - Prepared by the House Judiciary Democratic Staff - 10/23/01
Section 802: Definition of Domestic Terrorism – Creates a definition for “domestic terrorism” for the limited purpose of providing investigative authorities (i.e., court orders, warrants, etc.) for acts of terrorism within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Such offenses are those that are “(1) dangerous to human life and violate the criminal laws of the United States or any state; and (2) appear to be intended (or have the effect) – to intimidate a civilian population; influence government policy intimidation or coercion; or affect government conduct by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping (or a threat of).” Same as Administration proposal.