Stop the USA PATRIOT Act!

The Berkeley Chapter of the ACLU is particularly concerned about provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act and related Executive Orders that:

• Significantly expand the government's ability to access sensitive medical, mental health, financial, and educational records about individuals; and lower the burden of proof required to conduct secret searches and telephone and Internet surveillance;
   
• Give law enforcement expanded authority to obtain library records, and prohibit librarians from informing patrons of monitoring or information requests;
   
• Give the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the power to designate domestic groups, including religious and political organizations, as "terrorist organizations";
   
• Grant power to the Attorney General to subject citizens of other nations to indefinite detention or deportation even if they have not committed a crime;
   
• Authorize eavesdropping on confidential communications between lawyers and their clients in federal custody;
   
• Limit disclosure of public documents and records under the Freedom of Information Act.

For more information about the USA PATRIOT Act, read:

• "8 Reasons to Help the ACLU Defend Freedom"
• "Human Rights Abuses Under the Material Witness Law Since 9/11" (PDF, 545KB)
• "Worlds Apart: How Deporting Immigrants After 9/11
  Tore Families Apart and Shattered Communities" (PDF, 272KB)
• "Conduct Unbecoming: Pitfalls in the President's Military Commissions" (PDF, 109KB)
• "Sanctioned Bias: Racial Profiling Since 9/11" (PDF, 955KB)
• "America's Disappeared: Seeking International Justice
  for Immigrants Detained after 9/11" (PDF, 396KB)
• "Freedom Under Fire: Dissent in Post-9/11 America" (PDF, 305KB) or the text version
• "RFID Position Statement "
• "Unpatriotic Acts" (PDF, 848KB)
• "Seeking Truth From Justice" (PDF, 498KB) or the text version

If you need the viewer for PDF files, go to Adobe Acrobat Reader.