Bravo!

ONE FEDERAL JUDGE DEFIES BUSH GOVERNMENT ABUSES


PORTLAND, Ore. [Associated Press] - A federal judge issued a stern rebuke of a key White House antiterror law, striking down as unconstitutional two pillars of the USA Patriot Act.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled Wednesday that using the act to authorize secret searches and wiretapping to gather criminal evidence -- instead of intelligence gathering -- violates the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

"For over 200 years, this nation has adhered to the rule of law -- with unparalleled success. A shift to a nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised," Aiken wrote.

CLICK

COMMENT: Although many people eventually escape punishment, the Constitution seeks to protect the rights of the guilty and the innocent alike. More and more, it appears that the innocent are caught in the nets of punishment; where the guilty cannot be found, the innocent will serve! Electronic surveillance being what it is, the most unremarkable slip can become a matter of public scrutiny and condemnation. To hit the news shows, only a piece of tape or a cell phone picture is needed to magnify the small into the notorious.

This was the case with Brandon Mayfield, the man charged under the Patriot Act. The fact that he had done nothing wrong was lost in an FBI mistake and a blizzard of phony publicity. The government had to pay $2 million to him for those errors.

Now, the court has seen fit to tell the government to stop doing what it has been doing.