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| SCOTUS Quietly Turns Down PATRIOT Act Challenge, 4th Amendment |
| 2010-11-01 |
| The SCOTUS is refusing to take up a constitutional challenge to provisions of the PATRIOT Act from a lawyer who was once falsely connected to deadly terrorist bombings in Spain. The justices on Monday turned down an appeal from Brandon Mayfield, the Oregon lawyer who was arrested by federal agents after they mistakenly matched him to a partial fingerprint from the train bombings in Madrid in 2004. The partial fingerprint didn't belong to Mayfield, who got an apology and $2 million from the federal government. The settlement also gave him standing to challenge parts of the PATRIOT Act. The FBI cleared itself of any wrongdoing in an internal investigation, to no one's great surprise. On September 26, 2007, two provisions of the U.S. Patriot Act were declared unconstitutional. Finding in Mayfield's favor, a federal judge ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment," which violates the Constitution of the United States. Previously, a secret FISA court had to determine that a warrant was justified, but the PATRIOT Act nullified the 4th Amendment in such investigations, permitting invasive surveillance without probable cause or judicial approval in terrorism investigations, though since they have been used almost exclusively for non-terrorism related investigations. The Federal government appealed that ruling to the Ninth Circuit, which blocked Mayfield's challenge to the PATRIOT Act. By turning down the appeal, the appeals court ruling remains in place. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |