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My name is Amy and I am a graduate student in peace and conflict studies at Marburg University, Germany. At the moment I am volunteering at the Why Democracy? project in Cape Town as an online coordinator.

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How can something be partially unconstitutional?

posted by Anna-Maria Müller at 15h09 GMT on Sep 27

Either it is constitutional, or it's not - right?

But the good news is:

"Today, Judge Ann Aiken of the Oregon Federal District Court ruled
that two provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA), "50 U.S.C. §§ 1804 and 1823, as amended by the Patriot Act, are
unconstitutional because they violate the Fourth Amendment of the
United States Constitution.""

Source: Kurt Opsahl on EFF - Deep Links

Found via: Xeni Jardin on Boing Boing

The FISA -- better known as the US "Patriot Act" -- expanded the power of governmental and law enforcement bodies in the USA after 9/11.

Civil rights organisations see civil liberties and constitutional rights endangered, because the Patriot Act allows law enforcement agencies a variety of otherwise unconstitutional surveillance techniques, indefinite periods of (lawfullly) custody for detainees and many more.

See the full picture of how the US government tries to expand the outreach of its jurisdiction by watching our documentary: "Taxi to the Dark Side"