The USA-PATRIOT Act: QUICK ANALYSIS

The USA-PATRIOT Act: QUICK ANALYSIS
by Gerald Oleson, Member of Greater Bangor Area BORDC
The USA Patriot Act is available in pdf format: http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/terrorism/patriotact.pdf

Summary:

Just 45 days after the September 11 attacks, with virtually no debate, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act. (USAPA). Many sections of this legislation take away checks on law enforcement and threaten the very rights and freedoms that we are struggling to protect.

Under this sweeping legislation the government can, among other actions:

Search your home and not even tell you. (Section 213)
Collect information about what you read, what you study, your purchases, your medical history and your personal finances. (215)
Label you a "terrorist" if you belong to an activist group. (Sections 411, 802)
Monitor your e-mails and watch what internet sites you visit. (Section 216)
Spy on innocent Americans. (Section 203, 901)
Put immigrants into jail indefinitely. (412)
Wiretap you under a warrant that doesn't even have your name on it. (Section 216)

**A note of explanation before proceeding: FISA stands for Foreign Intelligence Security Act (1978), which allows lower standards for intelligence gathering when the purpose is counterintelligence instead of criminal prosecution. FISA established a secret court to review the Attorney General's authorization of electronic surveillance aimed at obtaining foreign intelligence information. The proceedings of the court are non-adversarial and based solely on the Department of Justice's presentations. Records fr om the proceedings are sealed and not available even to person's prosecuted on information obtained via FISA warrants. Warrants do not require probable cause; FISA operates outside the Fourth Amendment protections. Warrants can be issued even if no crime has been committed (based on suspicions of being "a foreign power" or the agent of one). As will be seen below, the USA-Patriot Act significantly expanded and blurred the powers of the FISA.

The Bill

Section 203 puts the Central Intelligence Agency back in the business of spying on Americans.
Section 206 allows roving surveillance which could allow the government to tap all the computers in a library or all the payphones in a neighborhood, indefinitely, if a suspect is using one of them.
Section 209 enables law enforcement to seize voice mail messages via a search warrant.
Section 210 expanded the scope of subpoenas to cover electronic communications. Law enforcement officials can now obtain from ISPs information such as means and sources of payment (including credit card numbers), telephone records of sessions and their duration, and temporarily assigned network addresses.
Section 211 provides that cable operators responding to law enforcement requests by producing customer data about Internet service subscribers will not have to notify the subscribers first.
Section 213 allows law enforcement agencies to enter and search homes and offices while people are away, without notifying the owner until later. This is not limited to terrorism cases, applies to citizens, and allows seizure of things and of wire and electronic communications. This section is not "sunsetted".
Section 214 allows the government to use pen registers or trap and trace devices without the previous requirement that the government certify that "it has reason to believe that the surveillance is being conducted on a line or device that is or was used in 'communications with' someone involved in international terrorism or intelligence activities that may violate U.S. criminal law, or a foreign power or its agent whose communication is believed to concern terrorism or intelligence activities that violat e U.S. law."
Section 215 expands the scope of items that may be obtained through this authority from "records" to "any tangible things," which might include, for example, a computer server on which information is stored. This section also makes it illegal for librarians to disclose the existence of a warrant or the fact that records were produced as a result of the warrant.
Section 216 allows pen trap/registers and trace authority to apply to the Internet, allowing the government to collect unspecified, undefined information about Web browsing and email without meaningful judicial review, and negates specific warrants.
Section 217 allows ISPs, universities and network administrators to authorize surveillance on others without a judicial order.
Section 218 states that gathering of foreign intelligence information need only be "a significant purpose" of FISA surveillance, not "the purpose", as previously required.
Section 220 allows nationwide service of search warrants for electronic evidence. (allows an agent anywhere in the country to get a search warrant for anyone anywhere else in the country
Section 223 states that civil lawsuits are not available against the federal government for unauthorized interceptions or disclosures of information gathered.
Section 224 claims to be sunset warrants, but those secret warranted searches and other police state measures in the bill are not sunsetted.
Section 358 allows law enforcement and intelligence agencies to obtain sensitive personal information without judicial review, while section 508 permits access to student records based on a mere certification by the law enforcement agent that the records are relevant to an investigation
Section 411 can be used to punish speech protected under the First Amendment for lawful resident non-citizens.
Section 412 permits indefinite detention of immigrants and other non-citizens.
Section 503 allows for the collection of DNA of anyone convicted of a crime of violence for a database.
Section 505 authorizes issuance of national security letters for certain phone billing records, bank records, credit records on same showing as for FISA pen/trap (but no court order).
Section 506 allows the FBI to obtain consumer credit/banking information and other sensitive records simply by certifying that it is needed for any intelligence investigation.
Section 507 allows educational institutions to disclose educational records without court order or student consent when relevant to a terrorism investigation. The institution is not liable for disclosures made in good faith and need not retain a record of the transaction.
Section 508 of the USA PATRIOT Act allows law enforcement to access the student data collected for the purpose of statistical research under the National Education Statistics Act (NESA).
Section 802 defines "domestic terrorism" as any act/acts ""dangerous to human life"" which ""appear"" to ""intimidate or coerce a civilian population"" or ""influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion"" The proof of ""intent to do harm"" is removed. This overly broad definition of terrorism may ensnare political dissidents - both citizens and non-citizens -- who would not previously have been considered terrorists if law enforcement determines that a protest act fits the definition.
Section 901 empowers the Director of Central Intelligence to decide what individuals and organizations will be targeted for foreign surveillance in the US in violation of its charter.