Dear Senator:
The American Civil Liberties Union is writing to urge you to reject the most recent version of the anti-terrorism bill, the Uniting and Strengthening America Act of 2001 (S. 1510, "USA Act"). We recognize that you have the very difficult task of crafting effective legislation while the nation is still recovering from, and investigating, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In addition, this complicated new proposal is being rushed to the Senate floor as the nation is embarking upon military incursions in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, we call upon all Senators to carefully consider the impact of their deliberations on the Constitution and Bill of Rights as Congress assists the Administration in responding effectively to this attack.
While it contains provisions that we support, the American Civil Liberties Union believes that the USA Act gives the Attorney General and federal law enforcement unnecessary and permanent new powers to violate civil liberties that go far beyond the stated goal of fighting international terrorism. These new and unchecked powers could be used against American citizens who are not under criminal investigation, immigrants who are here within our borders legally, and also against those whose First Amendment activities are deemed to be threats to national security by the Attorney General.
We believe that the legislation confers new powers on the Executive Branch and federal law enforcement that go beyond what is necessary to fight terrorism. Notwithstanding all of the exhortations by the Attorney General to pass this legislation quickly, the Senate should take more time to review and debate the broad new authorities given to federal law enforcement in the various provisions of the USA Act. In our view, the loss of liberty and the removal of checks and balances on the Executive Branch that permeate this bill are not essential to making our nation safer and more secure.
Among the bill's most troubling provisions are measures that would:
· Permit the Attorney General to indefinitely incarcerate or detain non-citizens based on mere suspicion, even if they have successfully challenged a government effort to deport them.
· Minimize judicial supervision of federal telephone and Internet surveillance by law enforcement authorities in anti-terrorism investigations and in routine criminal investigations unrelated to terrorism.
· Expand the ability of the government to conduct secret searches -- again in anti-terrorism investigations and in routine criminal investigations unrelated to terrorism.
· Give the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the power to designate domestic groups as terrorist organizations and block any non-citizen who belongs to them from entering the country and making the payment of membership dues a deportable offense.
· Grant the FBI broad access to sensitive medical, financial, mental health, and educational records about individuals without having to show evidence of a crime.
· Lead to large-scale investigations of American citizens for ""intelligence"" purposes.
· Allow searches of highly personal financial records without notice and without judicial review based on a very low standard that does not require probable cause of a crime or even relevancy to an ongoing terrorism investigation.
· Allow student records to be searched based on a very low standard of relevancy to an investigation.
Even though your opportunity for deliberation and debate is regretfully very limited, we urge you and your staff to carefully review the enclosed fact sheets on various provisions of the legislation that create significant civil liberties problems.
In past times of tragedy and fear, our government has harassed, investigated and arrested people solely because of their race, religion, national origin, speech or political beliefs. We must not allow this to happen again, even as we work together to protect ourselves from future terrorist attacks. Unless the significant civil liberties problems are resolved in this legislation, the ACLU urges you to vote against the USA Act of 2001.
Sincerely,
Laura W. Murphy
Director, ACLU Washington Office
Gregory T. Nojeim
Associate Director & Chief Legislative Counsel