WASHINGTON (AP) — Top congressional leaders agreed Thursday to a four-year extension of the anti-terrorist Patriot Act, the controversial law passed after the Sept. 11 attacks that governs the search for terrorists on American soil. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress on Thursday gave itself three more months to consider changing provisions of anti-terrorism law that have been valuable in tracking security threats but have drawn fire from defenders of privacy rights. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — In story Feb. 15 about the Senate voting to extend antiterrorism measures, The Associated Press reported erroneously that a “lone wolf” provision in a 2004 law permits secret intelligence surveillance of non-U.S. individuals not known to be linked to a specific terrorist activity. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Monday agreed to a 10-month extension of three key law enforcement powers in the fight against terrorism that some privacy advocates from both the right and left regard as infringements on civil liberties. (more)
Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Republican, got the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) crowd’s biggest and most animated reaction of any speaker at the event – and took the stage saying: “I’m glad to see the revolution is continuing.” Paul applauded new House freshmen GOP members for blocking the extension of the PATRIOT Act. (more)
An effort to quietly pass an extension of key provisions in the Patriot Act under the same rules the House uses to name Post Offices failed in a Tuesday night vote. (more)
Full story: Eternal Citizen Vigilance, Now on Your iPhone! – Ricochet.com (more)
We conservatives agree that the federal government should be smaller, less costly and less intrusive. We also believe in the rule of law, the enforcement of our law, and the Constitution as written. In other words, true conservatives understand that there are some functions of government that serve a necessary purpose and that are required by the Constitution. In that vein, laws giving the federal government the authority to prevent massive theft of American products would normally be welcomed by conservatives. (more)
Full story: Who’s Threatening Your Civil Rights Now? – Ricochet.com (more)
California is five hours from Washington by plane, and a solid two days if one takes the scenic route. So perhaps distance explains why neither the Department of Justice nor the Senate Judiciary Committee are all that concerned by the impending passage of a California referendum item that would legalize marijuana in the Golden State. (more)
I have read scores of Supreme Court decisions, but rarely has their been so broadly vague and amateurishly twisted a rationale as in Chief Justice John Roberts majority decision (Jan. 21) on Holder, Attorney General, Et al. vs. Humanitarian Law Project. With only three justices dissenting, this dangerous judicial activism disables the free-speech anchor of the First Amendment. (more)
Senate Republicans on Tuesday were cautious about demanding the release of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s paper record from her time in the Clinton White House, despite the fact that her paper trail is otherwise uniquely thin. (more)
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation’s main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act. (more)
Organized labor may be putting their dollars behind an online effort to take down Tea Party groups and their “radical ideas.” (more)
WASHINGTON – The FBI broke the law by improperly obtaining thousands of telephone records in terrorism investigations from 2003 to 2006, the U.S. Justice Department’s inspector general said on Wednesday. (more)
