PATRIOT Games
Most of the hotly-debated USA PATRIOT Act is common-sense legislation whose provisions were effectively in place long before 9/11. As this article points out, however, certain sections of the act are more controversial and potentially invasive of civil liberties. As I see it, there are three things that are needed to allow law enforcement to do their job in a way that protects us from abuse - oversight, oversight, and oversight. Why should the Senate have to wait four years for the DOJ to throw crumbs of information about how often the FBI has used various provisions? How are we to be sure that the Act is helping fight the terrorists when Congressional Committees are not given concrete information about how exactly it is helping?
If Congress is going to renew the Act in its entirety, it should simultaneously do the following:
1. Pass a LIBERTY Act mandating annual DOJ reports to the House and Senate (I'll leave it to Congress to fill in the acronym). The mandated reports would detail the exact number of times each provision of the Act has been invoked and for what purpose. Portions of these reports could justifiably remain classified to protect ongoing investigations and prevent disclosure to the bad guys of specific law enforcement methods.
2. Congress should immdeidately consider enacting the 9/11 Commission's recommendation of a privacy/civil liberties Board for the entire federal government. The Board would serve a function somewhat akin to those carried out by the inspectors general at various federal agencies, or the Chief Privacy Officer at Homeland Security. Unlike in the intelligence context, there is little danger that such a Board would risk creating another level of useless bureaucracy, since no governmental body is currently tasked with this important function.
3. Build in another sunset provision that requires Congress to re-evaluate the necessity and efficacy of the statute four or five years down the road.
The PATRIOT Act may be (and probably is) a wholly good and necessary law. But still the question remains - Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
If Congress is going to renew the Act in its entirety, it should simultaneously do the following:
1. Pass a LIBERTY Act mandating annual DOJ reports to the House and Senate (I'll leave it to Congress to fill in the acronym). The mandated reports would detail the exact number of times each provision of the Act has been invoked and for what purpose. Portions of these reports could justifiably remain classified to protect ongoing investigations and prevent disclosure to the bad guys of specific law enforcement methods.
2. Congress should immdeidately consider enacting the 9/11 Commission's recommendation of a privacy/civil liberties Board for the entire federal government. The Board would serve a function somewhat akin to those carried out by the inspectors general at various federal agencies, or the Chief Privacy Officer at Homeland Security. Unlike in the intelligence context, there is little danger that such a Board would risk creating another level of useless bureaucracy, since no governmental body is currently tasked with this important function.
3. Build in another sunset provision that requires Congress to re-evaluate the necessity and efficacy of the statute four or five years down the road.
The PATRIOT Act may be (and probably is) a wholly good and necessary law. But still the question remains - Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
posted by From on High at 9:08 AM
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