01/26/2004: 
Breaking News
Part of Patriot Act Ruled Unconstitutional
By Linda Deutsch Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP)--A federal judge has declared unconstitutional a portion of the USA Patriot Act that bars giving expert advice or assistance to groups designated foreign terrorist organizations.
The ruling marks the first court decision to declare a part of the post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism statute unconstitutional, said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor who argued the case on behalf of the Humanitarian Law Project.
In a ruling handed down late Friday and made available Monday, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins said the ban on providing "expert advice or assistance'' is impermissibly vague, in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments.
The case before the court involved five groups and two U.S. citizens seeking to provide support for lawful, nonviolent activities on behalf of Kurdish refugees in Turkey.
The Humanitarian Law Project, which brought the lawsuit, said the plaintiffs were threatened with 15 years in prison if they advised groups on seeking a peaceful resolution of the Kurds' campaign for self-determination in Turkey.
The judge's ruling said the law, as written, does not differentiate between impermissible advice on violence and encouraging the use of peaceful, nonviolent means to achieve goals.
"The USA Patriot Act places no limitation on the type of expert advice and assistance which is prohibited and instead bans the provision of all expert advice and assistance regardless of its nature,'' the judge said.
Cole declared the ruling "a victory for everyone who believes the war on terrorism ought to be fought consistent with constitutional principles."
1 Annotation Submitted
Monday the 26th of January, Abe Froman noted:
Thank God!!!!!
If we do not hold ourselves to the same standards in our dealings of foreign policy as we do domestically, we are hypocrites! The DOI says "all men" not all Americans.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shallseem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
(I'm throwing the right wing a bone here - "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it" - This can even be loosely used as justification for our actions in Iraq, so long as you condone murder)
