Bush Gets A Little Trimming

A federal judge struck down controversial portions of the Patriot Act in a ruling that declared them unconstitutional, ordering the FBI to stop its wide use of a warrantless tactic for obtaining e-mail and telephone data from private companies for counter-terrorism investigations.

As reported by Wapo, the ruling by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York said the FBI's use of secret "national security letters" to demand such data violates the First Amendment and constitutional provisions on the separation of powers, because the FBI can impose indefinite gag orders on the companies and the courts have little opportunity to review the letters. The judge's comments echo some of the same concerns expressed by district court judge Royce Lamberth earlier this summer.

The secrecy provisions are "the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values," Marrero wrote. His strongly worded 103-page opinion amounted to a rebuke of both the administration and Congress, which had revised the act in 2005 to take into account an earlier ruling by the judge on the same topic.

Although a government appeal is likely, the decision could eliminate or sharply curtail the FBI's issuance of tens of thousands of national security letters (NSLs) each year to telephone companies, Internet providers and other communications firms. The FBI says it typically orders that such letters be kept confidential to make sure that suspects do not learn they are being investigated, as well as to protect "sources and methods" used in terrorism and counterintelligence probes.

The ruling follows reports this year by Justice Department and FBI auditors that the FBI potentially violated privacy laws or bureau rules more than a thousand times while issuing NSLs in recent years -- violations that did not come to light quickly, partly because of the Patriot Act's secrecy rules. Former Attorney General Gonzales got himself into hot water with Congress after he lied to them about whether there had been past FBI abuses of such secret NSL's.