Patriot Act

February 25, 2010

Congress Reauthorizes Overbroad Patriot Act Provisions with No Privacy or Civil Liberties Safeguards

Yesterday, the House passed a one-year extension of three expiring Patriot Act provisions without making much-needed changes to the overly broad surveillance bill.

With this extension, Congress failed to address proper privacy safeguards in the Patriot Act, including:

Amending the national security letter (NSL) statute to ensure that the government obtains financial, communication and credit records only of people believed to be terrorists or spies;
Requiring the government to convince a court that a national security gag order is necessary;
Terminating the "lone wolf" authority that permits the government to spy on people who are not part of a terrorist organization; and
Ensuring that the so-called "library records provision" does not authorize collection of library and bookstore records if they contain information on a patron unless he is a terrorist or spy.

Since the Patriot Act's passage in 2001, there have been several consecutive reports — including one released in January — from the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General that have outlined widespread and blatant abuse of the statute. FBI agents routinely claimed false terrorism emergencies to use "exigent letters," or emergency letters, in order to gain private records for investigations when no emergency existed. The FBI also regularly issued NSLs after the fact in an attempt to legitimize the use of exigent letters.

"Though the debate over reauthorizing the Patriot Act may be over this year, Congress still has the power to narrow the use of NSL powers and help avoid such abuses in the future," said Michelle Richardson, ACLU Legislative Counsel. "It's time to rein in the overbroad power of the NSL and bring the statute back in line with the Constitution."

Although the outcome is not what we had hoped, we made progress. In the House, 97 representatives, 10 of which were Republicans, voted against extending the Patriot Act. Some members of Congress justified this extension by promising that the next year would provide time for real reform. You can bet we're going to hold them to their promise. And we'll be turning to you to help keep the pressure on.

>> Learn more about the Patriot Act and the ACLU's work to reform it.

"By expanding the scope of the statute's power to collect information on innocent people, the Patriot Act failed to protect Americans' privacy," said the ACLU's Michelle Richardson. "It has become painfully clear that unchecked Patriot Act power inevitably leads to abuse, and National Security Letters are no exception. Innocent Americans have been swept into investigations and recipients have been barred from speaking about it publicly. Representatives Nadler and Flake should be praised for the introduction of this bill and we urge swift action by Congress to assure its passage."

Bill would limit 'overboard' Patriot Act subpoena power by Stephen C. Webster
March 30, 2009

A bipartisan bill introduced to Congress on Monday aims to curtail "overboard" subpoena power given to federal authorities by the Patriot Act.

Congressmen Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said in a release that National Security Letters, used by federal authorities to cull private information such as Internet histories and financial records, have led to "rampant abuse" and must be curbed.

"To ensure that Americans' privacy and free speech rights are protected, there must be clear oversight and strict guidelines tied to the use of NSLs," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, in an advisory on Monday. "Mr. Nadler and Mr. Flake should be applauded for taking this legislative step. Their bill will realign the current NSL authority with the Constitution. Congress must take this opportunity to rein in the power of the NSL."

"Government reports confirm that upwards of 50,000 of these secret record demands go out each year," noted IPS News.

The ACLU's press release follows.

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Congressmen Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) introduced legislation today to narrow the overbroad subpoena power in the National Security Letter (NSL) provision of the Patriot Act. The bipartisan bill, National Security Letters Reform Act of 2009, aims to curb rampant abuse of that power by federal law enforcement following the expansion of the Patriot Act and was introduced with 17 cosponsors. NSLs are secret subpoenas used to demand personal customer records from Internet Service Providers, financial institutions and credit companies without prior court approval.

"To ensure that Americans' privacy and free speech rights are protected, there must be clear oversight and strict guidelines tied to the use of NSLs," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Mr. Nadler and Mr. Flake should be applauded for taking this legislative step. Their bill will realign the current NSL authority with the Constitution. Congress must take this opportunity to rein in the power of the NSL."

NSLs were originally crafted to gain information about suspected terrorists but the Patriot Act expanded the statute to allow the subpoenas, which are issued in secrecy, do not require court review, and contain a gag order, to be used to obtain personal information about people who are simply deemed "relevant" to an investigation. After the statute's expansion, the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General released a series of reports over the last several years outlining systemic misuse and abuse of NSLs by FBI agents.

The ACLU is asking that Congress repeal the expanded NSL authorities that allow the FBI to demand information about innocent people who are not the targets of any investigation and reinstate prior standards limiting NSLs to information about terrorism suspects and other agents of foreign powers. In December of 2008, as a result of an ACLU lawsuit, the gag order provision was struck down as unconstitutional. The ACLU is now advocating that Congress legislate a constitutional alternative. The National Security Letters Reform Act of 2009 would make these necessary changes.

Earlier this month, the ACLU released a report entitled "Reclaiming Patriotism" that describes the widespread abuses that have occurred under the USA Patriot Act. The report, authored by policy counsel Michael German and Richardson, was delivered to congressional offices on Capitol Hill, as well as posted to the newly re-launched site www.reformthepatriotact.org in anticipation of the upcoming congressional debate surrounding three Patriot Act provisions due to expire on December 31, 2009.

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