The Wisconsin chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz Tuesday, challenging him to show whether city agencies have resisted pressure from federal authorities to engage in racial profiling and other activities in accordance with the USA PATRIOT Act.
The letter to the mayor expressed concern that the Patriot Act, a federal legislation established in 2001 and aimed at combating terrorism within the United States by loosening traditional restrictions on evidence gathering by federal authorities, may be infringing on the rights of residents, particularly those who belong to minority faith and ethnic groups.
“Many provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act do not make us any safer but are interfering with sound local law-enforcement policies, such as prohibitions against the use of racial or religious profiling,” ACLU of Wisconsin Executive Director Chris Ahmuty said in a statement.
Ahmuty said there have been concerns about whether local law enforcement has been called on to enforce matters of civil immigration.
However, according to Cieslewicz’s spokesperson Melanie Conklin, the mayor is “more than happy” to work with the ACLU.
“The Patriot Act is a travesty against civil liberties,” she said. “I think it’s a good thing to keep a check on governments. It’s a terrible law on all levels.”
According to Conklin, no fallout has been reported. However, Cieslewicz said he would look into city agencies’ activities, particularly through talking to the city library director and the police department.
“Cooperation between different levels of government can make us safer, but only if all those involved abide by the checks and balances built into our federal system,” Ahmuty said.
The Patriot Act also places federal gag orders on organizations, which could prevent them from commenting on federal requests for personal information.
“The question is, if we do find some violation, how much can we really say?” Conklin said. “This restriction is an infringement on the Bill of Rights, particularly free speech.”
However, some officials argue that the federal government has not instituted the authority to look into certain types of records, such as library records, and that people look at the Patriot Act’s authority as a tool to fight terrorism.
“It’s helping the fight against terrorism,” U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner’s spokesman, Jeff Lungrun, said. “If you take these tools away from law enforcement right now, then they can’t fight it. It will make their job protecting [Americans] more difficult and likely to fail.”
The ACLU’s letter was released on the one-year anniversary of the Madison City Council’s approval of a resolution condemning the Patriot Act and defending the Bill of Rights and civil liberties.
The council’s resolution called upon Congress to repeal sections of the act that threaten individuals’ rights and liberties guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. It directed the Madison Police Department to continue its current practice of not conducting random interviews of people based on their country of origin, race, religion or other characteristics or using racial profiling to review personal private records.
“We’re glad the ACLU is being vigilant on this issue,” Conklin said.
