September 3, 2003 Letter to Senators Warner and Allen
PO Box 8208
Alexandria, VA 22306-8208
September 3, 2003
The Honorable John William Warner
United States Senate
225 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-4601
The Honorable George F. Allen
United States Senate
204 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-4604
Dear Senators Warner and Allen:
As your constituent, I urge you to support the “Protecting the Rights of Individuals Act” (S. 1552). This newly introduced legislation would protect many of the civil liberties threatened by the USA PATRIOT Act and other government actions.
I believe that there should be checks and balances over government surveillance and that our First Amendment rights should be protected. I have read that the PATRIOT Act allows law enforcement agents to conduct secret “sneak and peek” searches of my home. Investigators can enter my home or office, take pictures and seize items without informing me that a warrant was issued for a very long time – if ever.
I have also learned that the government can now use a special intelligence court to collect information about the books I read, my purchases and my personal finances. Government agents can now obtain many types of my personal records — educational, medical, financial, sales, library, etc. — even if they have no probable cause of a crime. In fact, the PATRIOT Act prohibits the holders of that information, such as librarians, from disclosing that these records were turned over to the government.
A hallmark of American democracy has long been that our individual privacy is protected against government intervention and snooping as long as we are not guilty of wrongdoing. Unfortunately recent government efforts on “data-mining” would obliterate these protections — the government would simply collect data on everyone. Doing so would make us all suspects and in effect eliminate our personal privacy.
In response to these new powers, it is my understanding that S.1552 protects First Amendment activities of political protestors and requires a higher standard of proof before allowing government access to highly private and sensitive data (such as library, bookstore and medical records). This legislation would also ban federal agencies from engaging in “data-mining” without explicit congressional authorization and strengthen protections against government abuse by requiring that foreign intelligence warrants be issued only if the “primary purpose” of the warrant is for the gathering of foreign intelligence information.
S. 1552 would help ameliorate many of the most controversial provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and write into law protective standards against some measures, such as data-mining, adopted by the Bush Administration without congressional approval.
Once again, I urge you to support the “Protecting the Rights of Individuals Act” (S 1552).
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter.
Sincerely,
James Landrith