Patriot Act

2 Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful

September 27, 2007

PORTLAND, Ore. - Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow secret wiretapping and searches 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.

NEW YORK - A federal court today struck down the amended Patriot Act's National Security Letter (NSL) provision. The law has permitted the FBI to issue NSLs demanding private information about people within the United States without court approval, and to gag those who receive NSLs from discussing them. The court found that the gag power was unconstitutional and that because the statute prevented courts from engaging in meaningful judicial review of gags, it violated the First Amendment and the principle of separation of powers.

' career

LA Times
August 28, 2007

At last the attorney general has done the right thing and stepped down.
Some significant dates in the Washington career of Alberto R. Gonzales, the nation's 80th U.S. attorney general, who announced his resignation Monday.

January 2001: Named President Bush's White House legal counsel.

Jan. 25, 2002: In a memo, Gonzales contends that the president can waive anti-torture
laws and international treaties that provide protections to prisoners of war.

Feb. 3, 2005: Confirmed and sworn in as attorney general.

US Attorney General Gonzales to wield new death penalty authority

By Kate Randall
WSWS
22 August 2007

bush and gonzales (are they playing goose ?)
The US Justice Department is finalizing regulations that would give Attorney General Alberto Gonzales new authority in capital cases to shorten the time death row inmates have to appeal their convictions in federal court.