Pay Attention

2 February 2004


Expert Advice Clause of Patriot Act is Unconstitutional

US District Judge Audrey Collins has held part of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. Some provisions of the act make it a crime to provide "expert advice or assistance" to those engaged in lawful and non-violent activities to achieve their political goals. It seems that those same provisions violate the First and Fifth Amendments. The question isn't why the judge decided the case this way but rather how in the name of all that is right did these provisions ever get into the Act.

After the Al-Qaeda attacks on America in September of 2001, the US Congress had to do something to reassure a public that was rabidly angry and in mourning. That something was the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA Patriot Act) Act of 2001," 132 pages of law that no member of Congress is likely to have read in full before voting to approve.

At issue was a threat of 15 years in the slammer for advising Turkey's Kurdish population on peaceful ways to promote autonomy for that group within Turkey. That's longer than Mike Tyson served for rape -- and the crime is assisting the non-violent resolution of a political problem in a NATO member state.

"The USA Patriot Act places no limitation on the type of expert advice and assistance which is prohibited and instead bans the provision of all expert advice and assistance regardless of its nature," said the judge, who should never have had the case to consider. It would actually hold certain actions by the US State Department to be criminal.

This is how civil liberties in America will ultimately suffer. There was no baddie here, seeking to enslave the people. This was not a decree foisted on the people in the middle of the night. This was an Act of Congress, signed by the President and designed to enhance American security. It was sloppy legislation, badly written. Hardly a noble way to lose one's freedoms.

Home