Wisconsin Historical Society hosts lecture on the Patriot Act

by Taylor Hughes

News Reporter

Christopher Pyle, civil liberties activist and politics professor from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, said citizens should condemn the Patriot Act, which was passed in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, and encouraged students and community members to take action against the controversial legislation.

In a Saturday morning speech at a Madison Institute-sponsored event at the Wisconsin State Historical Society, Pyle said that it is up to the judiciary and legislative branches of the United States government, along with the free press, to invoke their constitutional powers and reverse the Patriot Act.

Pyle also said University of Wisconsin students could do their part to reverse the powers of the Patriot Act by passing student resolutions condemning the legislation and by encouraging law students to denounce participation among peers in military tribunals authorized by the act.

“The thing I struggle with [personally] is how people can remain silent,” Pyle said. “This isn’t a left versus right issue, this is an Americans versus un-Americans issue.”

Pyle’s speech hypothesized what many true ‘patriots,’ including Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, Felix Frankfurter and Frank Murphy, would think of the Patriot Act. In each case, Pyle insisted the true patriots would condemn the Patriot Act’s “sweeping powers” and compared them to transgressions committed by various parties of their respective generations.

Pyle also compared the powers of the Patriot Act to the wrongdoings of political leaders during the Watergate scandal and the Red Scare, along with the Writs of Assistance the British government issued before the American Revolution.

Secret “sneak and peek” searches, Pyle said, are as offensive to civil liberties as the spying performed Nixon’s party members against the Democratic National Committee in 1972 and the unjustified Writs of Assistance that helped drive American colonists to revolt more than two centuries ago.

The searches allow authorities to enter private residences certain situations and seize property in the name of national defense. Several pieces of legislation currently in congress are attempting to disallow searches of this type.

“Spies are in bed with the police again, and the Fourth Amendment — which guarantees the right of people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures — is in a coma,” Pyle said.

A panel of like-minded speakers also voiced opinions about the Act during the meeting. Sheila Spear, Director of International Student Services for UW and member of the Madison Institute board of directors, said a section of the Patriot Act denied by Congress included laws pertaining to international students. The section of legislation would have required international students to report college course selections and class attendance, both of which would have been unnecessary and difficult to monitor, Spear said.

Though most aspects of the Patriot Act should be condemned, some are not in need of reversal, Pyle added. Those laws dealing with international money laundering crimes and punishments are necessary, Pyle said.

In response to a question asked by a member of the audience, Pyle said that the Patriot Act does not take the United States one step closer toward fascism, adding that even a democratic state can deny civil liberties.