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Originally Posted by theking
Have you overlooked that reasonable cause is required in both the fourth admendment and the section of the Patriot Act? In either case if there is reasonable cause to think that someone is engaged in either criminal activity or "terrorist" activity I wan them investigated...end of story.
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Where 'reasonable cause' is, by the admission of the authors of the law itself, and extremely loose and can be ipso facto justified by whatever 'evidence' is collected.
Additionally, the federal government already HAD the ability to investigate terrorists under the Foreign Intelligence Surveilance Act. The USA PATRIOT extended that to any person, suspect of any crime, at any time, with minimal requirements.
Everyday citizens can now be treated with the same disregard as foreign nationals with respects to search and seizure.
And if that isn't enough, how about section 215? The FBI can use Section 215 to demand ?any tangible thing,? including books, letters, diaries, library records, medical and psychiatric records, financial information, membership lists of religious institutions, and even -- as Attorney General Ashcroft himself conceded in testimony before Congress -- genetic information. Again, this is based on the loosest of requirements, with no requirement to disclose, and again
not limited to people under investigation for terrorist ties.
How can you reasonably argue that rights have not be diminished by this terrible peice of legislature ram-rodded through by ashcroft on a 7 day schedule?