A Petition for the...
"Immediate and Total Repeal of the USA/Patriot ACT"
To: U.S. Congress
We, the undersigned, hereby declare that anti-terrorism legislation passed by our US Congress since the tragic and murderous September 11, 2001 attacks on our nation, seriously damage and infringe upon the constitutional protections that are enshrined in our Bill of Rights.
We declare that it is not patriotic, but rather Un-American to destroy the very freedoms which cause Americans to love their country.
We declare that open government is critical to democracy and that by imposing new levels of secrecy our government appears less trustworthy and lessens the people’s ability to make informed decisions about government.
We declare that lessening the strength of the judicial and legislative branches of our government, while simultaneously giving completely unlimited powers to the executive branch does damage to our American principle of separation of powers.
We oppose the use of secret military tribunals at which a person is afforded no independent defense counsel and could be sentenced to die and executed without the knowledge and approval of the American people.
We oppose the president’s orders to lock down presidential records, thus denying our ability to judge the actions of the executive.
We oppose the indefinite imprisonment of foreign nationals if no criminal charge has been placed against them. We further oppose the holding of any person without publicly declaring the crime they are charged with.
We oppose the “sneak and peek” provision of the PATRIOT Act, which crushes our 4th amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure by denying citizens their right to be aware that their property is to be searched and their right to protest such search if the warrant is out of order.
We oppose the collection of private business records by order of secret courts and the muzzling of those citizens who receive such orders from speaking publicly about them. This is a violation of both the 1st and 4th amendments.
We oppose the PATRIOT Act’s destruction of e-mail and Internet privacy. In addition, the sharing of such data indiscriminately among any number of government agencies and even foreign governments is patently intolerable.
For these reasons, we demand the immediate repeal of the PATRIOT Act. We call upon our elected representatives to act in accordance with the Constitution of the United States and to undo these actions which violate the core principles of America.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
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