Portion of Patriot Act Ruled Unconstitutional
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(Sept. 30) -- The portion of the controversial Patriot Act that allows for searches of Internet and phone records has been declared unconstitutional.
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A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a key provision of a law that is the centerpiece of the Bush administration&#39;s legal war on terrorism, ruling that the FBI cannot require Internet
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One section of the Patriot Act was ruled unconstitutional yesterday by a federal judge. The section, 505, gave the FBI power to demand information from companies without a court order and bars recipients of
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Nevada representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union are hailing a federal judge&#39;s ruling against part of the Patriot Act that the FBI used to get casinos and airlines to turn over records of thousands of Las Vegas visitors.
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A Montgomery County judge has ruled that Maryland's anti-spam law is unconstitutional because it seeks to regulate business transactions beyond the state's borders.
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A federal judge ruled yesterday that a portion of the Patriot Act is unconstitutional, the first time one of the anti-terrorism law&#39;s police surveillance provisions has been struck down.
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A Pennsylvania law allowing the state to force Internet service providers to block access to child pornography sites is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
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A Pennsylvania law allowing the  state to force Internet service providers to block access to  child pornography sites is unconstitutional, a federal judge  ruled on Friday.
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KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine&#39;s Constitutional Court has ruled that parts of electoral changes recently adopted by parliament are unconstitutional, a day before a repeat of the presidential runoff.
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The Bush administration can continue its warrantless surveillance program while it appeals a judge's ruling that the program is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
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It is unconstitutional for Sen. Lindsey Graham to serve as a member of Congress and a military judge at the same time, a military court has ruled.
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A federal judge struck down parts of the new U.S.A. Patriot Act that authorized the F.B.I. to use informal secret demands called national security letters.
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Tallahassee, Florida, Sep. 23  - The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Terri&#39;s Law as unconstitutional.
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A federal court Friday struck down as unconstitutional a path-breaking Pennsylvania law designed to prevent Internet users from seeing Web sites that contain child pornography.
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A key part of the Patriot Act, a  central plank of the Bush Administration's war on terror, was  ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge on Wednesday, in the  latest blow to U.S. security policies.
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(InfoWorld) - A U.S. district judge has struck down a part of the anti-terrorism-inspired Patriot Act that requires telephone and Internet service providers to turn over records to the government without telling customers. Judge Victor Marrero, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled Thursday that the Patriot Act provision that allows the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation toÂ obtain ISP and telecom subscribers' billing, calling, and Web surfing recordsÂ without court approval violates the U.S. Constitution. Marrero ordered the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice to stop issuing so-calledÂ national security letters, or NSLs, requiring ISPs to turn over subscriber records. The NSL program prohibited ISPs from telling customers that they were being investigated. Marrero delayed the order pending a DOJ appeal of his decision. The NSL program under the Patriot Act violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as a restraint on free speech, the judge said in his 107-page order. The program also bypasses judicial oversight of the requests, Marrero said. The NSL program could allow the FBI to unmask the identity of Internet users posting anonymous comments, obtain all of the e-mail messages of an Internet user, and even find out all the Web sites a user has visited, Marrero said. "In light of the seriousness of the potential intrusion into the individual's personal affairs and the significant possibility of a chilling effect on speech and association -- particularly of expression that is critical of the government or its policies -- a compelling need exists to ensure that the use of NSLs is subject to the safeguards of public accountability," the judge wrote. The DOJ is reviewing the decision and considering its options, a spokesman said. The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit against the DOJ and FBI, praised Marrero's decision. "Courts have a constitutionally mandated role to play when national security policies infringe on First Amendment rights," Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, said in a statement. "A statute that allows the FBI to silence people without meaningful judicial oversight is unconstitutional." The U.S. Congress passed the Patriot Act less than two months after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Congress, under pressure from President George Bush, reauthorized the Patriot Act in 2006. Many civil liberties groups have criticized the law for being overly broad and targeting innocent U.S. residents. Marrero in 2004 ruled that the NSL provisions of the Patriot Act violated the Constitution because they amounted to unreasonable search and seizure. After the 2006 revisions to the Patriot Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sent the case back to Marrero for a ruling on whether the NSL provisions were still unconstitutional. The FBI's use of the NSL program, which existed before the Patriot Act, has ballooned since the law was passed, Marrero noted. In 2000, the FBI issued about 8,500 NSL requests, and the number of requests rose to 56,000 in 2004, he wrote. The NSL program's "most troubling" aspect, Marrero wrote, is that it attempts to bypass judicial review of law enforcement requests. The program "reflects an attempt by Congress and the executive to infringe upon the judiciary's designated role under the Constitution," he wrote.
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An appeals court on Tuesday upheld the part of a tough anti-terrorism law signed by President George W. Bush that took away the right of Guantanamo prisoners to challenge their detention before U.S. federal judges.