Parts of the Patriot Act Ruled Unconstitutional 414
BlueBlade writes "According to this CBS story, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause."
This will sound very pessimistic (Score:4, Interesting)
Extraconstitutional authority (Score:2, Interesting)
I'll bet W is wondering where in the constitution it says "Extraconsitutional Authority is prohibited"
This comment is powered by the energy generated by dynamos attached to the spinning graves of J. Edgar Hoover, Joe McCarthey, Richard Nixon...
Re:And this took how long? (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem is that the current administration wants to have it both ways, wartime/emergency/crisis powers and wants the domestic life to otherwise behave as if there is no emergency, such as repeatedly cutting taxes, despite deficit spending.
The Bravest Woman in American Government (Score:2, Interesting)
As an aside, I am really tired of hearing about all of the cool stuff around health care and civil rights coming out of Oregon. I'm from New York, and damn it, they're making us "East Coast Liberals" look like a bunch of featherweights who never get anything done.
Floored (Score:2, Interesting)
I was well on the way to staying in Germany permanently due to the issues I've had with the US government over the last few years. Big victories like this one cause me to stop and reflect, however, and several more actions of this nature will make living in America seem appealing again.
Re:And this took how long? (Score:3, Interesting)
US is in war with someone almost all the time, what a convenient setup.
So basically, the President has no power to take out civil liberties and break the constitution... buuut he has the power to start a war, declare wartime, and THEN he can do whatever the hell he feels like.
I love it
Re:Regarding Ron Paul... (Score:3, Interesting)
And, although the media primarily focused on the religion aspects, that isn't what bothered most people. The problem was the reckless misappropriation of government funds and the clandestine procedures. If they have funded it some other way and gone through normal channels I'm not sure it would have been such a big issue.
Re:Attemted treason (Score:3, Interesting)