Fading freedoms.Byline: The Register-Guard When Congress approved the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978, it drew a sharp line between information collected for the distinctly different purposes of protecting national security and fighting ordinary crime. The line was no arbitrary whim. Lawmakers recognized that the act allows wiretaps and surveillance orders in espionage and terrorism cases under far more lenient le·ni·ent adj. Inclined not to be harsh or strict; merciful, generous, or indulgent: lenient parents; lenient rules. standards than the Constitution allows in traditional criminal investigations. The dividing line Noun 1. dividing line - a conceptual separation or distinction; "there is a narrow line between sanity and insanity" demarcation, contrast, line differentiation, distinction - a discrimination between things as different and distinct; "it is necessary to was intended to ensure that prosecutors would not use the act to bypass federal courts and handle criminal cases in complete secrecy - a secrecy that would have deprived suspects of basic constitutional protections. Now that critical line has been blurred - rather, erased - by the super-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review In 1978, Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), 50 U.S.C.A. §§ 1800–1829 (West 2003) to prescribe separate procedures for federal agents to follow when conducting foreign surveillance. , weakening Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure unreasonable search and seizure n. search of an individual or his/her premises (including an automobile) and/or seizure of evidence found in such a search by a law enforcement officer without a search warrant and without "probable cause" to believe evidence of a . The review court overturned an earlier lower FISA Noun 1. FISA - an act passed by Congress in 1978 to establish procedures for requesting judicial authorization for foreign intelligence surveillance and to create the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court; intended to increase United States counterintelligence; court ruling that identified 75 cases in which the FBI improperly crossed the line of separation, obtaining permission for intelligence wiretaps for the use in routine criminal investigations and prosecutions. The nearly invisible lower court took the unusual step of going public with its decision after U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft John David Ashcroft (born May 9 1942) is an American politician who was the 79th United States Attorney General. He served during the first term of President George W. Bush from 2001 until 2005. Ashcroft was previously the Governor of Missouri (1985 – 1993) and a U.S. argued that federal investigators should be allowed to routinely share information between criminal and terrorism investigators and conduct surveillance of people in cases in which law enforcement, not foreign intelligence, is the primary focus. As alarming and audacious as this request was, the three federal appeals court judges on the review court unanimously agreed this week that the requested change in surveillance rules is constitutional. That's because the USA Patriot Act USA PATRIOT Act [Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorists], 2001, U.S. , which Congress rushed through with inadequate scrutiny or debate after Sept. 11, changed the rules under which FISA warrants are issued, giving the government authority to decide, in pursuing suspects, whether to use a regular criminal wire tap or take the FISA shortcut (1) In Windows, a shortcut is an icon that points to a program or data file. Shortcuts can be placed on the desktop or stored in other folders, and double clicking a shortcut is the same as double clicking the original file. . The review court's decision, which cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, should set off alarm bells in Congress. Such expanded search-and-seizure authority - and the minimizing of the role of civilian courts in protecting the Fourth Amendment rights of citizens - should prompt swift corrective action A corrective action is a change implemented to address a weakness identified in a management system. Normally corrective actions are instigated in response to a customer complaint, abnormal levels if internal nonconformity, nonconformities identified during an internal audit or by lawmakers, especially when viewed in the context of the many other new powers the government has assumed since Sept. 11. They include the ability to try suspected terrorists in military tribunals, and to hold U.S. citizens indefinitely without judicial review as "enemy combatants." Congress, which so far has shown little appetite for standing up the the Bush administration's steamrolling of the Bill of Rights, should revise the dangerously flawed USA Patriot Act. The alternative is a new era of unprecedented government spying on Americans. |
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