IP: John Dean: 'Liberties lost: unintended consequences of the anti-terror law'

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/648339.asp?0dm=C13UO

> Law and Order
> John Dean: 'Liberties lost: unintended consequences of the anti-terror law'
> Posted on Sunday, October 28 @ 08:47:15 EST
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> By John W. Dean, MSNBC
>
> When President Bush signed the sweeping new anti-terrorism legislation into
> a law, providing federal law enforcement officials with powerful new weapons
> to more effectively fight terrorism, he proved Supreme Court Justice Sandra
> Day O'Connor prescient. A little less than a month earlier, Justice O'Connor
> advised a law school audience in Manhattan that as part of the country's
> response to terrorism, "we're likely to experience more restrictions on our
> personal freedom than has ever been the case in our country."
>
> While this new anti-terrorism law was certainly not designed to take away
> civil liberties of Americans, its unintended consequences threaten
> fundamental constitutional rights of people who have nothing to do with
> terrorism. The well-meaning but careless exuberance of our lawmakers is
> alarming.
>
>
>
> A 'HIGH-FLYING ACRONYM'
>
> More attention appears to have been given finding a title for the new law
> than the substance of its provisions. The "Uniting and Strengthening America
> by Providing Appropriate Tools Required To Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
> Act," as Rep. Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, noted during the
> House debate, is a truly "high-flying acronym, it is the PATRIOT bill, it is
> the USA bill, it is the stand up and sing the 'Star Spangled Banner' bill."
>
> It is also a law, Frank lamented, that was processed by Congress "in the
> most undemocratic way possible, and it is not worthy of this institution."
>
> No hearings were held in either the House or Senate on the USA PATRIOT Act,
> and few -- if any -- members of Congress were really aware of what was
> actually in this massive, complex, highly technical 30,000-word statute,
> which is divided into ten titles, with more than 270 sections and endless
> subsections that cross-reference and amend a dozen, or more, different laws.
>
> There is a concept in the legislative process called "regular order." It is
> the time- tested procedure to make certain that our laws are carefully
> considered. The USA PATRIOT Act was jammed through the House and Senate,
> with those calling for regular order being labeled unpatriotic. In fact, the
> 66 Republicans and Democrats in the House and the one member of the Senate
> who refused to be railroaded believed that law enforcement officials should
> have the tools needed to fight terrorists, but they should not be created at
> the expense of basic American freedoms.

<snip>


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