Judge strikes down part of Patriot Act

NEW YORK - A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act on Thursday, saying investigators must have a court's approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the government orders must be subject to meaningful judicial review and that the recently rewritten Patriot Act "offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers."

The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the law, complaining that it allowed the FBI to demand records without the kind of court order required for other government searches.

The ACLU said it was improper to issue so-called national security letters, or NSLs — investigative tools used by the FBI to compel businesses to turn over customer information — without a judge's order or grand jury subpoena. Examples of such businesses include Internet service providers, telephone companies and public libraries.

Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, said prosecutors had no immediate comment.

Jameel Jaffer, who argued the case for the ACLU, said the revised law had wrongly given the FBI sweeping authority to control speech because the agency was allowed to decide on its own — without court review — whether a company receiving an NSL had to remain silent or whether it could reveal to its customers that it was turning over records.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070906/ap_on_re_us/patriot_act_lawsuit

Can we SUE HOLLYWOOD NOW?? Cause Remember Music companies went into peoples ISP Providers to sue people who downloaded music and movies illegaly? So Thats ok right? Thats ok for Hollywood to go in peoples ISP Providers who steal music and movies.But its not ok for the goverment to go in ISP providers to get infomation about the enemy. This is how Germans caught terrorist yesterday.Ill tell you one thing ,DEMOCRATS WILL BE BLAMED IF THERES ANOTHER TERROR ATTACK And Then Nancy Pelosi will be impeached! Just like Bill Clinton was blamed for 9-11 attacks cause he was so soft on Al Queda during his term. And Clinton failed to get Bin Laden when he had the chance to.

 

The Patriot Act is not a good thing. Sure, it will possibly prevent more terrorist attacks, but so will installing cameras into people homes and microchips under their skin. It doesn't mean we should do it.

 

But its ok for Hollywood to do it right?

 

I am pretty sure those companies got a court order for those ISP numbers to be turned over. Thats all the judge is saying, that you need to get a court order.

 

No its not OK for Hollywood to do it. The strict regulations on DVDs and music are so ridiculous that you almost don't own a DVD that you buy.