Court sides with ACLU, strikes down Patriot Act gag provision

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-- Court sides with ACLU, strikes down Patriot Act gag provision

Posted by gehzumteufel on Dec-16-2008 22:52:

Court sides with ACLU, strikes down Patriot Act gag provision

Finally a win for the people.

quote:
A federal appeals court ruling late Monday is the cause célèbre of the American Civil Liberties Union, as another provision of the Bush administration's Patriot Act falls to the judicial system.

Until the ruling, recipients of so-called "national security letters" were legally forbidden from speaking out. The letters, usually a demand for documents, or a notice that private records had been searched by government authorities, were criticized as a cover-all for FBI abuses.

"The appeals court invalidated parts of the statute that wrongly placed the burden on NSL recipients to initiate judicial review of gag orders, holding that the government has the burden to go to court and justify silencing NSL recipients," said the ACLU in a release. "The appeals court also invalidated parts of the statute that narrowly limited judicial review of the gag orders – provisions that required the courts to treat the government's claims about the need for secrecy as conclusive and required the courts to defer entirely to the executive branch."

Because of the ruling, the government will now be forced to justify individual gag orders before a court, instead of casually wielding the power of a blanket gag as the Bush administration has done since the blindingly fast passage of the Patriot Act in Oct. 2001.

In Sept. 2007, a federal judge ruled unconstitutional provisions within the Patriot Act which allowed the government to obtain search warrants without probable cause.

Source

Posted by whiskers on Dec-16-2008 23:59:

Nice. I'm very interested to see what stance Obama administration will take on these issues.

Posted by gehzumteufel on Dec-17-2008 00:02:

I am too. I really hope he rolls back most if not all of the patriot act provisions. Also wish that he would ditch the DMCA as it is anti-competitive and also gives the MAFIAA (RIAA and MPAA) too much power over innovation.

Posted by Clovis on Dec-17-2008 00:28:

Cue some dickwad reply about how the ACLU is working against us all...

Posted by whiskers on Dec-17-2008 01:48:

quote:
Originally posted by gehzumteufel
I am too. I really hope he rolls back most if not all of the patriot act provisions. Also wish that he would ditch the DMCA as it is anti-competitive and also gives the MAFIAA (RIAA and MPAA) too much power over innovation.

I know there are much more pressing issues to take care of, but if the government would stick up for the little man and speak up against the RIAA 'extortion' cases, even if it takes like 2 minutes of their time, that would be something. They could at least threaten to look into the 'extortion' cases and promise justice. That would cool RIAA off.

Posted by Krypton on Dec-17-2008 02:54:

I'm a card carrying member of ACLU. Love what they do.

Posted by gehzumteufel on Dec-17-2008 16:59:

quote:
Originally posted by whiskers
I know there are much more pressing issues to take care of, but if the government would stick up for the little man and speak up against the RIAA 'extortion' cases, even if it takes like 2 minutes of their time, that would be something. They could at least threaten to look into the 'extortion' cases and promise justice. That would cool RIAA off.

Yep. Those assholes need to fix their failed business model.