The Patriot Act is (again) up for renewal this month. Now remember, it was initially enacted as a supposedly temporary measure in the wake of 9-11, but more and more of it keeps getting made permanent and the rest has been continually extended for the past decade. With the death of bin Laden, it's finally time for Congress to bring back the pre-9-11 legal norm, before we decided it was okay to toss out our civil liberties if the "bad guys" were scary enough.
A key debate is brewing as the vote grows near: the right wing will argue that bin Laden's demise is evidence that the Patriot Act was justified, despite there being no evidence that it helped in any way in the search for bin Laden (other than constantly distracting law enforcement with thousands of spurious leads). We believe it's now time to fix the Patriot Act once and for all. We must erase bin Laden's ugly legacy, not extend it: by ending the Patriot Act's erosion of our civil liberties, we can protect the freedoms that make America worth fighting for.
Progressives and Tea Party Republicans initially blocked a long-term Patriot Act extension in January, but a three-month extension was passed in February. During the interim, the House and Senate have held hearings on potential reforms to the expiring provisions. The authorities in question are:
These provisions were always unjustified, always an over-reach of the government's authorities, initially enacted only because a terrorized citizenry was too fearful to prioritize defense of its constitutional rights. With bin Laden's passing it should be clear to all Americans: the era of the Patriot Act, of spying on Americans who aren't suspected of crimes, of heavy-handed abuse of our dearly held civil liberties, must come to an end.
Nearly 75,000 Demand Progress members have urged Congress to fix the Patriot Act. In April 3,000 of them called the White House to urge President Obama to veto any bill that lacks sufficient reforms. Demand Progress aired an anti-Patriot Act ad on MSNBC, CNN, and FOX News earlier this year. Now it's your turn to help.
Click here: sign our petition urging Congress to fix the Patriot Act.
Follow Aaron Swartz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/aaronsw
If the Patriot Act survives, Bin Laden wins. It's as simple as that.
The only reason I can see it still survives today is that is has never been challenged in Federal Court, where it is known it will fail. Those cases that have gotten that far have invariably been settled or dropped rather than allow the constitutionality to be challenged in open court.
This is by far the most malicious legislation ever passed against the American people. Not surprising it came out of the Bush Administration and the GOP controlled congress.
Yes.
Yet even when the Democrats had the presidency and both houses of Congress it was not repealed.
Tragic.