While you were distracted,
Congress was quietly renewing every major provision of the Patriot Act
Endless sunset
While you were, ah,
distracted, Congress was quietly renewing every major provision of the
Patriot Act.
By Rachel Neumann
October 31, 2005
Most of the provisions of the USA Patriot Act, including
access to
library records, were supposed to "sunset" this month, five years after
the law's passing. Instead, both the House and the Senate have already
voted to renew the entire act, with only minor revisions. While they're
at it, they'd like to add some decidedly unpatriotic amendments to
expand the death penalty.
These new
amendments
would let prosecutors shop around for another jury if the one they have
is deadlocked on the death penalty; triple the number of
terrorism-related crimes eligible for the death penalty; and authorize
the death penalty for a person who gives money to an organization whose
members kill someone, even if the contributor did not know that
the organization or its members were planning to kill.
The Patriot Act was enacted during what President Bush called
"a
state of emergency." It wasn't even read by most of the members who
voted for it. But the whole point of the sunset clause was to allow
Congresspeople to actually read the bill and debate it in calmer times.
Now, the Act is effectively being made permanent
with little or no debate or discussion.
Still, the House and the Senate are still in negotiations
over the
final wording of the bill and so it hasn't been made final yet. The
Bill of Rights Defense Commitee is asking people to make one last push
to keep it from getting renewed. They list possible
actions you can get involved in and ways to educate your
communities about threats to civil liberties.
Rachel Neumann is Rights & Liberties
Editor at AlterNet.
