USA Patriot Act Extended
On Friday, July 29th the Senate voted in favor of making permanent the major provisions of the USA Patriot Act, following similar action by the House of Representatives earlier this year. Whereas the House version included 10-year sunset provisions on some of the controversial provisions (such as those involving roving wiretaps and library and medical records), the Senate version includes only 4-year moratoriums. These and other differences between the two bills will have to be resolved in the fall before a final version wends its way to President Bush for signature.
Omitted from the Senate version were provisions that would have expanded the ability of law enforcement officials to obtain information without seeking judicial intervention. These provisions were highly criticized by some Senators and were apparently dropped in a compromise to permit the bill to go forward before the close of the Senate’s summer session, which ended Friday.
Articles on the Patriot Act extension can be found here and here.
In other Patriot Act news, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled on Friday that certain portions of the existing act are unconstitutional, despite amendments made in response to an earlier ruling by the same judge declaring those portions unconstitutional.
Posted by Lance Koonce