The United States District Court in Oregon on September 26 invalidated parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on 4th Amendment grounds. Judge Ann Aiken ruled secret searches and wiretaps used to gather evidence rather than intelligence violate the Constitutional protection against unreasonable search.
Judge Aiken’s decision includes the warning “For over 200 years, this nation has adhered to the rule of law — with unparalleled success. A shift to a nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised.”
The case was filed by an Oregon lawyer who was the victim of the FBI’s 2004 mis-identification of him as a suspect in the Madrid train bombings. The FBI made a formal apology to the lawyer and paid him two million of our taxpayer dollars, while the lawyer retained the right to sue.
The Justice Department is likely to appeal this decision. As a result, the ruling is not expected to have any immediate effect on enforcement under the Patriot Act. However, the impact for liberty will be huge if the case is upheld.
Earlier this month the ACLU won an important case that limited the use of Patriot Act national security letters — a legal device that added to colonial resistance when the British called them “general warrants” in the 18th century.
The Libertarian Party of Georgia wants an America that is both safe and free. We take seriously Benjamin Franklin’s admonition from 1755: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Our opposition to the Patriot Act began long before its passage in the aftermath of the attack of September 11th; Libertarian opposition helped defeat the original attempts to impose roving wiretaps and “know your customer” banking laws when they were proposed as stand-alone bills during the Clinton and Bush administrations.
