Friday - August 17, 2007

Congress Shall Make No Law

Here is another example of government stepping over the line and infringing on the rights of free men.  It seems that there is something called a "National Security Letter or NSL" that FBI has issued some 140,000 times in the last couple of years.  In it, it says that the recipient may not discuss the NSL.  Apparently, the NSL was created under the Patriot Act.

Which goes back to the title, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...."  National security or not, the NSL is patently offensive and obviously violates the First Amendment.

Now if a court would authorize a search warrant and require the recipient remain quiet until the defendants are arrested, so as not to tip them off, that is one thing, but Congress has no right, no authorization, and no ability to restrict basic freedoms for any cause.

The only right way to go about this is for the FBI to go before a court and prove the need for a search warrant.

A U.S. law that requires people who are formally contacted by the FBI for information to keep it a secret is unconstitutional, a top civil liberties group told a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday.

An FBI letter requesting information -- called a National Security Letter (NSL) -- is effectively a gag order because it tells the recipient the request must remain a secret, even though it needs no authorization by a judge, said Jameel Jaffer, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer.

Recipients have the right to challenge the secrecy order in court under a 2006 congressional amendment to the NSL law.

But the law says that judges must defer to the FBI's view that secrecy is necessary, undermining the judiciary's check on the power of the executive branch, Jaffer said.

Government lawyers argued before U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero that the FBI's need to ensure that targets are unaware of a probe outweighs the free speech rights of NSL recipients.

The ACLU is fighting the government on behalf of an Internet access company that received an NSL.

The company filed suit in April 2004. In September 2004 Marrero found the NSL gag violated constitutional free speech rights and struck it down as unconstitutional.

The government appealed the ruling, but Congress amended the NSL provision in its reauthorization of the Patriot Act last year before an appeals court could hear the case.  Read more...

Author: The Lockean
Technorati Tags: National Security Letter NSL
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