Obama Would Continue "Patriot Act"

A few years ago, the Bush administration used America's fear of terrorism to push through Congress the Patriot Act. This misnamed law had nothing to do with patriotism, but was instead one of the most far-reaching destruction of individual rights this country has ever seen. It gave the federal government the right to eavesdrop on Americans and seize records without ever having to apply for and justify a search warrant.

When the law was passed, I thought it was unconstitutional, and I still believe that. Our Founding Fathers knew how oppressive and intrusive government could be. That's why they made search warrants a constitutional requirement before government could snoop into the correspondence or records of private citizens.

I had hoped that one of the things President Obama would do upon coming into office would be to restore the individual rights taken from Americans through the Patriot Act. It looks like that hope will soon be dashed. Three provisions of the Patriot Act will soon expire, and the Obama administration has said it will ask that those provisions be extended.

One of the provisions gives the government the right to seize "business records" without a warrant. This is slightly misnamed, since it really applies to all of a person's records right down to the library books they read. There is no reason for this provision to exist. The government should have to apply for and justify issuance of a search warrant before seizing any kind of records from an individual citizen or organization.

The other two provisions regard the governments ability to use wiretaps without getting a search warrant first. These provisions can even be used when the individual has no known connections to terrorists or foreign governments or groups (in other words, it can apply to any American the government singles out -- without any probable cause and regardless of how innocent they may be).

It was wrong for the Bush administration to pass these laws, and it is just as wrong for the Obama administration to try to extend them into the future. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It is an issue of restoring the individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution to every American.

Not a single provision of this bad law should be extended. In fact, every single provision of the Patriot Act should be extinguished as soon as possible.