February 9, 2011 - 5:14pm
It has been ten years since the PATRIOT Act was enacted and it has been ten years that the ACLU has been fighting its constitutionality.
Yesterday, without a lot of press and media coverage, three provisions of the PATRIOT Act when to Congress for renewal. The provisions included “the so-called 'library provision' that allows a secret court to issue orders for anything deemed relevant to an investigation; the roving wiretap provision that allows the government to get a wiretap order that doesn't specify the person or place to be tapped; and the 'lone wolf' provision, which permits intelligence wiretapping of people not connected to a terrorist group.”
The House failed to renew these provisions in a vote of 277-148. Although that seems like a large margin, it was only seven votes away from passing.
Here in Maine we can proudly say that Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and Congressman Mike Michaud both voted against renewing these unconstitutional provisions!
