Court strikes down Patriot Act provision
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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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(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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In a stunning defeat to one of the Bush administrationâs most championed and controversial &quot;anti-terror&quot; policies, a federal judge yesterday ruled that a provision of the
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A federal judge in Oregon ruled yesterday that two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional, marking the second time in as many weeks that the anti-terrorism law has come under attack in the courts.
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NEW YORK - The Justice Department will likely appeal a court ruling that declared unconstitutional a Patriot Act provision allowing secret and unchallengeable searches of Internet and telephone records, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday.    In a blow to the Justice Department's post-Sept...
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The US Supreme Court dismisses a legal challenge to an eavesdropping programme started after 9/11.
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Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said yesterday that federal courts have endangered national security by ruling against the Bush administration on issues related to the war on terrorism.
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update A federal court has struck down a Pennsylvania law that blocks access to Web sites labeled as child pornography, claiming that the rule violated the First Amendment.
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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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The Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the Bush administration's domestic spying program.
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A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutional and vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday.
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A divided U.S. appeals court strikes down a lower court's ruling that a federal government wiretapping program is illegal.
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Canada's Supreme Court on Friday struck down a controversial anti-terror law which allows foreign suspects to be detained indefinitely on the basis of secret evidence.
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Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspects  have the constitutional right to pursue lawsuits challenging  their imprisonment, a federal judge ruled on Monday in a defeat  for the Bush administration that struck down how the U.S.  military reviewed their cases.
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A federal judge on Wednesday ruled a portion of the Patriot Act is unconstitutional, the first time one of the antiterrorism law&#39;s controversial police surveillance provisions has been struck down.
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A U.S. district judge struck down the section of the act that requires telephone and ISPs to turn over records to the government without telling customers.
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NEW YORK Sept. 30, 2004 - The Justice Department will likely appeal a court ruling that declared unconstitutional a Patriot Act provision allowing secret and unchallengeable searches of Internet and telephone