Protecting the Patriot Act
By Ed Feulner
The Washington Times
Commentary
July 25, 2005
Nothing lasts forever. Even some federal laws have expiration dates. For example, when lawmakers passed the USA Patriot Act in 2001, they put in "sunset" provisions. That was a reasonable precaution. The Patriot Act was passed shortly after September 11, 2001, when everyone was focused on preventing another terrorist attack. Lawmakers wanted to make sure the Patriot Act would protect us without trampling the civil rights we Americans rightly cherish.
Today, almost four years later, the verdict is in: The Patriot Act works -- and the 16 provisions scheduled to expire should be renewed. Last week, though, the House of Representatives took an important step forward, while the Senate took a possible step back.
The House passed a bill that would make permanent 14 of the 16 expiring provisions. The remaining two measures would still expire in 10 years.
One of those is Section 215. It allows a special federal court to approve a search warrant for any tangible thing (books, records, papers, documents and other items) during an investigation aimed at international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities. Such a search is allowed, provided the investigation doesn't violate the First Amendment rights of a U.S. citizen.
This is a critical power. As Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey told Congress last month: "You want to catch a terrorist with his hands on the check instead of his hands on the bomb. You want to be many steps ahead of the devastating event. The way we do that is through preventive and disruptive measures, by using investigative tools to learn as much as we can, as quickly as we can, and then incapacitating a target at the right moment."
A 10-year renewal of this power would be a good start. Section 215 is no threat, and in fact has been used only 35 times from the time the Patriot Act was passed until March 30 of this year. And it never has been used to subpoena a record from a bookstore or a library.
How do we know? The attorney general and the FBI director are required to inform Congress every time Section 215 is used. That sort of oversight protects Americans' civil rights.
But if we repeal Section 215, we remove even the possibility the police could investigate suspicious activity in a library or a bookstore. We would effectively make those places safe havens for terrorists. That clearly would be a big mistake.
Unfortunately, our safety may depend on which of two competing Senate bills is adopted. Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill that would dilute many Patriot Act components. For example, it would restrict secret searches and on surveillance during terrorist investigations.
That bill goes to the floor alongside a much better one already passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, a bill that would make permanent all 16 controversial components of the Act.
The recent attacks in London should prove the struggle against terrorism is far from over. In response to the bombings, British Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed his government would launch "vigorous and intensive" manhunts to catch those responsible.
One reason they're playing catch-up is Britain doesn't yet have an anti-terrorism law such as the Patriot Act, so the government hasn't been tracking potential terrorists as aggressively as it could. Not surprisingly, lawmakers there are now expected to pass a measure giving police more power to detain and prosecute suspects.
The Patriot Act has given our law-enforcement officials reasonable and necessary powers, and they've been successful. Nationwide, we know of dozens of terror cells broken up by police since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Those groups were not able to complete their planning or launch their missions. As a result we have suffered no major further attacks here in the United States.
Many federal laws should be improved or eliminated. But the Patriot Act does exactly what it's supposed to do: help protect us from terrorists. Congress should make sure the entire Act is renewed before those protections expire. We can't allow the terrorists to gain any momentum in this fight.
Ed Feulner is president of The Heritage Foundation.
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