Patriot Section 215

spy1 · Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:07 am Post subject: Patriot Section 215

* Let the Sun Set on PATRIOT - Section 215:
"Access to Records and Other Items Under the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act"

Welcome to "Let the Sun Set on PATRIOT," a new EFFector series
on the battle to let some of the most troubling provisions in
the USA PATRIOT Act expire, or "sunset." Each week, we'll
profile one of the 13 provisions set to expire in December of
2005 and explain in plain language what's wrong with the
provision and why Congress should allow it to sunset. This week
we begin with the notorious section 215, which allows the FBI
secretly to demand access to your private records.

~ What Section 215 Does

Section 215 allows the FBI secretly to order anyone to turn over
your private records or any other "tangible things," so long
as the FBI tells the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA) court that the information is sought "for an authorized
investigation...to protect against international terrorism or
clandestine intelligence activities." These demands for your
personal records come with a "gag order" prohibiting the
recipient from telling anyone, ever, that they received a
Section 215 order.

~ How Section 215 Changed the Law

It used to be that the power to use a secret order to demand
access to your private records had two critical checks: the
FBI was (1) limited to reviewing records of particular use
to terrorist or counter-intelligence investigations, such as
hotel or car, truck and storage rental records, and
(2) was required to present to the FISA court "specific and
articulable facts giving reason to believe that the person
to whom the records pertain[ed]" was a terrorist or spy.

Section 215 dispensed with these safeguards. Now, the FBI can
use a secret order to examine anything, including "books,
records, papers, documents, and other items." Nor does the FBI
need any facts demonstrating that you may be a spy or terrorist in
order to do so. Instead, it can use these secret orders to
investigate anyone it chooses - even a U.S. citizen not
suspected of any crime. And the FISA court has no choice in the
matter: it must issue the order even when there are no facts to
back it up.

~ Why Section 215 Should Sunset

By allowing the FBI secretly to search through your most personal
information - including financial records, medical records,
student records, even your library records - without ever having
to give probable cause to suspect you of a crime, or even to show
that your records are relevant to an investigation, Section 215
profoundly violates your Fourth Amendment rights.

Further, Section 215 makes it so that you could be investigated
because of the political or religious meetings you attend,
the websites you visit or even the books that you read. Under
the provision, the FBI can investigate United States persons
(citizens and legal residents) based at least in part on their
exercise of First Amendment rights, and can investigate non-U.S.
persons based solely on their free speech activities or religious
practices. As a result, Americans are chilled from exercising
their Constitutional rights. Already, attendance at and
donations to mosques have dropped significantly, as many Muslims
reasonably fear that they will be targeted for investigation
due to their religious beliefs.

Finally, and unlike grand jury subpoenas used in non-FISA
investigations, there is no way for someone served with a
Section 215 order to go to court and challenge its legality.
Combined with the FISA court's lack of discretion and
oversight when it comes to Section 215 orders, this is a
recipe for abuse, giving the FBI essentially unchecked power
to scrutinize the private lives of innocent Americans.

~ Conclusion

Of the PATRIOT provisions scheduled to sunset, Section 215 is
perhaps the most dangerous to your civil liberties. EFF
strongly opposes its renewal, and urges you to do the same.
We support the Security and Freedom Ensured Act (SAFE Act,
S 1709/HR 3352), a PATRIOT reform bill that would, among
other things, restore the requirement that the FBI have
specific facts indicating you are a spy or terrorist before
using Section 215 to gain access to your private records.
We encourage you to visit EFF's Action Center today to let
your representatives know you support the bill:
http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2866

~ Next Week

We'll look at Section 213, which authorizes the FBI to conduct
secret "sneak & peek" searches of your private home or office.


	Home ˇ Topics ˇ Submit News ˇ Top 10 This entire site, Cops Themes, and Computer Cops are Š 2002 - 2004 Computer Cops, LLC. All rights reserved. You can syndicate our news using the file RSS 0.91, ultramode.txt, or RSS 1.0. Acceptable Use Policy. Use signifies your agreement. Engine Copyright Š 2002 by PHP-Nuke, GNU/GPL Licensed. ICRA Member. Paul Laudanski, Member of Computer Cops, LLC Server Load: 1202 pages served in previous 5 minutes. Page Rendered: 0.734 seconds.