Thursday, December 18, 2008

Court Sides with ACLU, Strikes Down Patriot Act Gag Provision

ACLU victorious as federal court declares Patriot Act provision a violation of the First Amendment

Great news for American civil libertarians, dredged up by us this morning whilst googling. From yesterday's Raw Story article:
A federal appeals court ruling late Monday is the cause célèbre of the American Civil Liberties Union, as another provision of the Bush administration's Patriot Act falls to the judicial system.
Until the ruling, recipients of so-called "national security letters" were legally forbidden from speaking out. The letters, usually a demand for documents, or a notice that private records had been searched by government authorities, were criticized as a cover-all for FBI abuses.
"The appeals court invalidated parts of the statute that wrongly placed the burden on NSL recipients to initiate judicial review of gag orders, holding that the government has the burden to go to court and justify silencing NSL recipients," said the ACLU in a release. "The appeals court also invalidated parts of the statute that narrowly limited judicial review of the gag orders – provisions that required the courts to treat the government's claims about the need for secrecy as conclusive and required the courts to defer entirely to the executive branch."
Because of the ruling, the government will now be forced to justify individual gag orders before a court, instead of casually wielding the power of a blanket gag as the Bush administration has done since the blindingly fast passage of the Patriot Act in Oct. 2001.
Check out the full article below, which includes an ACLU press release on the subject:
Court sides with ACLU, strikes down Patriot Act gag provision
Chalk this decision up as a victory for freedom and liberty, and another blow against the encroaching corporo-fascist totalitarian state. Slowly but surely American courts continue to tediously unwind the assault and damage that's been done to our U.S. Constitutional liberties, during the 8-year Bush Administration nightmare.

Comments are invited, as always.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good one Rudi. The Bush family have a long history of supporting right wing socialists, like Hitler f'rinstaance:

How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power

Anonymous said...

So what? The republican party is the one and only true party....

Anonymous said...

I still want to know who the man in that relationship is?
Howell or Schwebke? Neither has any balls, but have to squat to pee...

Anonymous said...

Why does the Froerer business have all of Weber County School contracts for buying and selling the schools property? Now that's corruption. But if your a republican? Its OK

Anonymous said...

Read this and substitute Godfrey for Republicans, City Council for Democrats, and wcforum naysayers for "we".

Anonymous said...

How can "G" Train have all of Ogdens real estate business without it being bid to other realtors for the best return for the city? Seems she has zoning just for her properties that are not availabale to other developers. Look at the shared driveway on 25th street across from the old Weber Club, how did she get permission for that.
If I wanted to upgrade my home and was turned down by the planning department I would sue since they approve her developments without question.
The city council should review her exclusive contract to see if there are other larger realty companies that could return more money to the city.

Anonymous said...

Well your so called Corporo-fascist totalitarian state is no more. Now we can experience the Left wing give away state that rewards doing nothing, contributing nothing and wants to spread the wealth evenly among the citizens. I can hardly wait until they raise the taxes to 90% on all those pseudo liberals in Hollywood and the sports world, they already are crying about more taxes. They want it on the backs of the middle class, not on their backs.

I think a better idea is for the government just to give every American citizen a million dollars and let the chips fall where they may. It would certainly stimulate the economy without anyone doing any more work. I will be lined up for my check next year.

RudiZink said...

Good point, Squirt. What a shame that this great country, the world's first experiment in constitutional representative democracy, can't modernly break out of the continuing cycle of the shift in power between left wing socialism and right wing socialism.

Of course other alternatives are sometimes presented such as this:

One possible alternative

Such alternatives don't have quite enough "charisma," of course.

Let's face it, Squirt. In the final analysis... Americans are in love with BIG GOVERNMENT.

Even our most savvy posters such as Danny are plainly locked into modern America's Lefty/Right pendulum-swinging loop.

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