PORTLAND, Ore. – Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, “now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment.”
The U.S. attorney general’s office essentially asked a court to amend the Bill of Rights by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning. There is already many tombs written about Supreme Court interpretations of the fourth amendment. Most of them degrade the fourth amendment to worthlessness. A couple of years ago I personally witnessed such a travesty as the local police unimpeded by the necessity for search and arrest warrants burst into the home for traffic violations. Twenty thousand dollars and much heartburn later, the court gave my family our fourth amendment rights.
I champion the restoration and enhancement of all rights whether enumerated or implied by amendments nine and ten (like the right to have sex, eat, have families and breathe)