Federal Judge Rules That Part of the USA PATRIOT Act Is ...

spy1

Un-Constitutional.

"The Federal District Court for the Central District of California today released a ruling declaring unconstitutional a provision of the USA PATRIOT Act that made it a crime to advise or assist an organization designated as 'terrorist' by the U.S. government, even when that support is solely intended to promote lawful, non-violent activities. The Court decided that the provision, Section 805 of the USA PATRIOT Act, is unconstitutionally vague and violates the First and Fifth Amendments.

"Under PATRIOT, it would've been illegal to provide humanitarian or political advocacy training to the anti-apartheid African National Congress, which was a designated 'terrorist' organization before apartheid was defeated," said Kevin Bankston, EFF attorney and Equal Justice Works Fellow. "This decision ensures that Americans can exercise their First Amendment right to engage in non-violent political activism without being branded as terrorists-by-association."

http://www.eff.org/news/breaking/archiv...php#001194

Nice little breathe of fresh air there, I'd say. I'm sure it will have an end-run done on it, though (they'll stick the same provision - worded differently - into P2, or include it in some piece of legislation that's entirely non-related and hope no one reads the fine print before passing it). Or, since that was just a Federal District court that made the ruling, it's quite possible that a higher (read: owned) court will over-turn the ruling. Pete


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