Patriot Act E-Mail Searches Apply to Non-Terrorists, Judges Say

The New York Sun ^ | February 28, 2006 | JOSH GERSTEIN

[antiRepublicrat]

Two federal judges in Florida have upheld the authority of individual courts to use the Patriot Act to order searches anywhere in the country for e-mails and computer data in all types of criminal investigations, overruling a magistrate who found that Congress limited such expanded jurisdiction to cases involving terrorism.

The disagreement among the jurists about the scope of their powers simmered for more than two years before coming to light in an opinion unsealed earlier this month. The resolution, which underscored the government's broad legal authority to intercept electronic communications, comes as debate is raging over President Bush's warrantless surveillance program and the duties of Internet providers to protect personal data.

A magistrate judge in Orlando, James Glazebrook, first questioned the so-called nationwide-search provision in 2003, after investigators in a child pornography probe asked him to issue a search warrant requiring a "legitimate" California-based Web site to identify all users who accessed certain "password-protected" photos posted on the site. The Web provider was not named in public court records.

Magistrate Glazebrook said that in passing the Patriot Act, formally known as the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, Congress made clear its focus was on terrorism. He said there was nothing in the language Congress adopted in the days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that suggested the nationwide-search provision should apply to garden variety federal cases.

[antiRepublicrat]

"It's to defend our country against the terrorists."

Yeah, right. Was anybody stupid enough to believe that?

[darkwing104]

of individual courts to use the Patriot Act to order searches anywhere in the country

Not good, Not good at all...

[ndt]

Don't tell me you are surprised?

[freepatriot32]

and the good news /sarc is they added stuff to the patriot act today. surely the addded items will only be used to track terrorists right?

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[darkwing104]

Don't tell me you are surprised?

No, not really, there is always a possibility of any law getting abused or reinterpreted by someone in a black robe.

[joesnuffy]

Those who proposed the laws can always claim they had no idea
they would be used in an anti Constitutional way....after the fact.....

[ndt]

It does not get to a judge unless it was handed to him by a prosecutor, that comes back to the A.G.

[mmercier]

Does this mean some NSA spook will intercept my next free ipod...?

[El Gato]

This is one federal judge and one local magistrate. The lowest level of federal judge at that.

One who let a bad case create bad law, at least in his court. No appeals court has yet ruled on the interpretation of the statue, let alone the Supreme Court.

I certainly wouldn't let a single case get my blood pressure up too much. I'm sure it wasn't even necessary to use the Patriot Act in the first place to go after interstate/international child pornography, as there were plenty of warrants issued for that sort of thing long before the Patriot Act came along. Heck the RICO act would probably be correctly applied in most such cases.

[ndt]

"I'm sure it wasn't even necessary to use the Patriot Act in the first place..."

It's not, but it certainly is easier. The worst part is that this probably is not a "bad law" in the sense that it in all likelihood does not violate the letter of the patriot act. If you hand the government broad powers, expect them to be applied broadly.

[stockstrader]

Why is this surprising? The power, reach, control and intrusiveness of the government just continues to grow and grow and grow 'in the name of security'.

[freepatriot32]

A New Jersey man accused with using a laser to beam pilots of two planes has been charged under the Patriot Act. The FBI has acknowledged that the incident does not have any relation to terrorism but called David Banach's actions "foolhardy and negligent."

"An analysis of the Justice Department's own list of terrorism prosecutions by The Washington Post shows that 39 people, not 200, as officials have implied, were convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security."

The Post report said, "Most of the others were convicted of relatively minor crimes such as making false statements and violating immigration law and had nothing to do with terrorism."

Treasury Department figures reviewed by Newsweek show that this year the Feds have used the Patriot Act to conduct searches on 962 suspects, yielding "hits" on 6,397 financial records. Of those, two thirds (4,261) were in money-laundering cases with no terror connection. Among the agencies making requests, Newsweek has learned, were the IRS (which investigates tax fraud), the Postal Service (postal fraud) and the Secret Service counterfeiting). One request came from the Agriculture Department -- a case that apparently involved food stamp fraud.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri filed an action against PayPal for violating the PATRIOT Act (18 U.S.C. 1960), based on PayPal's use in processing funds transfered for online gambling."

There are other troublesome aspects of The Patriot Act. Take, for example, Title III, aimed at money laundering. This became part of the Act at the insistence of Democrats that include Senators Daschle and Kerry. The Justice Department has used it to investigate corruption allegations against a Las Vegas strip club owner!

Homeland Security saves America by busting a toy store owner for legally selling a Rubik's Cube knockoff

[ndt]

Thanks, I was just starting to google for links.

This is not an isolated incident. Prosecutes are still in their "testing the waters phase". Once it is clear that they do have the power to utilize the P.A. for ordinary crime ALL the other protections that Americans assume they have are meaningless. All crime becomes treated as terrorism.

[ndt]

Prosecutes = Prosecutors

Spell checker got me...

[LibertarianInExile]

ELEVEN TRUTHS ABOUT TYRANNY

1) Any law the electorate sees as being open to being perverted from its original intent will be perverted in a manner that exceeds the manner of perversion seen at the time.
2) Any law that is so difficult to pass it requires the citizens be assured it will not be a stepping stone to worse laws will in fact be a stepping stone to worse laws.
3) Any law that requires the citizens be assured the law does not mean what the citizens fear, means exactly what the citizens fear.
4) Any law passed in a good cause will be interpreted to apply to causes against the wishes of the people.
5) Any law enacted to help any one group will be applied to harm people not in that group.
6) Everything the government says will never happen will happen.
7) What the government says it could not foresee, the government has planned for.
8) When there is a budget shortfall to cover non-essential government services the citizens will be given the choice between higher taxes or the loss of essential government services.
9) Should the citizens mount a successful effort to stop a piece of legislation the same legislation will be passed under a different name.
10) All deprivations of freedom and choice will be increased rather than reversed.
11) Any government that has to build safeguards into a law so that it will not be abused is providing guidelines for abusing the law without violating it.

[LibertarianInExile]

JoeSnuffy's Corollary to the Eleven Truths

Elected representatives who voted for a law will later claim they had no idea that law would be 'abused,' even in the face of opponents to the law stating the contrary prior to its passage.

[billbears]

Magistrate Glazebrook denied the search warrant, but it was recently disclosed that the government appealed to a federal judge, G. Kendall Sharp, who granted it without explanation.

Don't worry. 'Conservatives' will be here shortly to explain to us that either the judge was a Clinton nominee, if Democrats got out of the way of Bush's nominations this wouldn't happen, or it's to protect us from the turrists

In any case, we'll be told we really need the 'patriot' act and to doubt administration thinking on this is to be with the turrists

[LibertarianInExile]

LibertarianInExile's Second Corollary

Executive officials will develop implementation policies that further pervert the law from the stated intentions of those voting for it (e.g., zero-tolerance, may-issue, etc.).

[Realism]

"It is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." --Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering

[Nova]

"Was anybody stupid enough to believe that?"

When I saw how many FReepers believed it, I knew that our "experiment in freedom" was almost over.