I just heard on the radio that the Senate Intelligence Committee has voted to expand the ORWELL USA PATRIOT Act to permit the FBI to seize your papers without a warrant and without a court being involved at all.
To quote some great, apparently outdated language:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The vote was 11-4. This means that while, as usual, we can lay this infringement of personal liberty at the feet of the Republican Party, a bare minority of Democrats also joined in to trash the most basic protections of the Constitution.
Osama Bin Laden could not take away our freedom. Only we have done that.
Oh, m. That strict constructionist propaganda is so over. Just ask Antonin Scalia.
Posted by: Riggsveda | June 08, 2005 at 08:52 PM
Are you sure that you're describing the provision correctly? I thought it was an expanded subpoena power, which isn't actually the power to seize docs. I don't know how the FBI's subpoena power works, but if it's like civil litigation, you'd get a chance to challenge it in court before turning anything over.
Posted by: iocaste | June 09, 2005 at 05:49 PM