There seems to be a lot of misinformation and disinformation floating around about the Patriot Act, so I thought I would take a minute in this blog to talk about this issue. The primary goal of the Patriot Act is to legalize communication between intelligence gathering and law enforcement organizations. Before September 11, for example, the CIA could not share intelligence information with the FBI if that information could not be used in a court of law. As a result, important information went unused or undiscussed and opportunities were lost. The Patriot Act does not exempt law enforcement officials from Due Process. It doesn’t allow agencies to read emails or listen to phone conversations without a court order, and, it contains no mention of monitoring what books people take out of the library. For more information about the Patriot Act I would encourage people to look at the FAQ’s on this subject on the Eastern District of Michigan Counter-terrorism web page here.
