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The American Civil Liberties Union and staunch conservative Bob Barr have united to combat provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act to protect what they consider a “shrinking” Bill of Rights.
Barr, a former U.S. representative, R-Ga., and ACLU president Nadine Strossen met at the Milwaukee Athletic Club Thursday to discuss their shared concern about the powers the act gives to the federal government that they believe infringe on citizens’ rights.
“This is a systemic assault on the Fourth Amendment and other provisions in the Bill of Rights,” Barr said. “Whatever power government takes, it doesn’t give back.”
Strossen explained the relationship between the traditionally liberal organization and the former Republican legislator by identifying both as active conservationists of American civil liberties.
“There is nothing more conservative than conserving the values on which this nation was founded,” she said.
The two used examples of FBI officials listening in on people in their cars and placing individuals on lists based on the library books they check out to illustrate the existence of a new, dangerous relationship between the government and U.S. citizens. Strossen claimed that the government flagrantly infringes on citizens’ right to travel, describing stricter airport-security measures as “Orwellian.”
Both Barr and Strossen argued that the constant threat of an invasion of privacy is shaping the reality of present-day life in America.
The Department of Justice claims the Patriot Act is not guilty of straying from traditional norms governing privacy and liberty.
“Congress simply took existing legal principles and retrofitted them to preserve the lives and liberty of the American people from the challenges posed by a global terrorist network,” the Department of Justice’s website said.
The Attorney General’s office has also claimed that “ordinary Americans” have nothing to fear from the law. It assures that the increased police authority targets only individuals who have ties to terrorism or other national security threats.
Strossen, however, argued that all citizens’ rights are threatened when anyone’s civil liberties are compromised. She also said measures enacted under the Patriot Act only serve to cloud the real dangers in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, world, meaning the United States is not effectively addressing the issue of national safety.
“This government has thrown a cloak of secrecy over everything,” Strossen said. “It’s not security. It’s an illusion of security.”
The USA PATRIOT Act was passed to help fight the “war on terrorism” in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. The legislation expands the ability of law enforcement to investigate American citizens secretly. It easily passed through Congress in October 2001, flying through the House with a 357 to 66 vote and through the Senate with only Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., voting against the measure.
“Russ Feingold was a hero,” Strossen said.
Despite lauding Feingold for his bravery, Strossen pointed out that both Democrats and Republicans voted for the bill’s passage. She argued liberals have no right to “smugly” condemn Attorney General John Ashcroft’s policies, since they are partially responsible for them.
In fact, both sides agreed that the Bush administration was not the only mastermind behind many of the Patriot Act’s provisions.
“Bill Clinton and Janet Reno were some of the original authors of the present Patriot Act,” Strossen said.
Barr said the present law’s precursor came about under Clinton, not Bush, saying, “A lot of these [powers] surfaced in the Clinton administration.”
According to both speakers, political power struggles caused by the Patriot Act are not partisan boxing matches. Rather, fighting is destroying the very structure of the federal government itself.
“It has nothing to do with Republican versus Democrat. It’s the executive against the other branches of government,” Strossen said.
Both Barr and Strossen also noted the threat the Patriot Act poses to the traditional separation of national and local powers as one of their major concerns. They believe the legislation creates a federal mandate for local lawmakers to adopt policies that invade the privacy of their constituents.
Strossen used the city of Madison’s refusal to comply with some of Bush’s policies on immigration security as an example of the power local institutions have to protect their citizens at the municipal level.
In 1998, Barr led the fight to impeach President Clinton. The ACLU hired him to work on privacy issues after he lost his bout for re-election in the 2002 primaries. Barr is also an employee of the National Rifle Association.