Government Appeals Patriot Act Ruling in the Ninth Circuit

In September 2007, a U.S. District Court judge in Oregon struck down two provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act as unconstitutional.  Brandon Mayfield, a Portland-based attorney, was arrested and detained in connection with the 2004 bombing of a train station in Madrid, but was released after two weeks when a fingerprint at the scene alleged to be his was matched to an Algerian terrorist.  The court found that the secret searches of Mayfield's house and office, although done under a FISA warrant, violated the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure.

That same month, the ACLU also won its suit in a different federal district court – the judge in our case struck down the National Security Letters provision of the USA PATRIOT Act.  The NSL provision radically expanded the FBI's authority to demand personal records like Web site visits and e-mail addresses without prior court approval AND allowed the FBI to forbid or "gag" anyone who receives an NSL from telling anyone about the record demand.   The ACLU sued on behalf of Internet service providers (ISPs) and librarians.

On February 8th, the Justice Department appealed the Mayfield ruling to the Ninth Circuit on behalf of the Bush Administration.  The government is arguing the judge's ruling went too far in finding "that the Patriot Act made it too easy for the government to secure warrants against criminal suspects from a secret court designed to help the authorities monitor and gather intelligence on terror suspects."  According to the DOJ, Judge Aiken's decision is "the first ever to find a constitutional defect in FISA, and the constitutional rule that it adopts has damaging implicationsfor national security." (note - the brief is 100 pages long)

The ACLU has supported Mr. Mayfield in speaking out against new provisions of FISA that would allow more surveillance without adequate checks and balances.  The Ninth Circuit should affirm the holding in this important case and uphold the safeguards of the Fourth Amendment.

 



Send your comments to Nicole Ozer