[One of very many sections of a 421KB law, but still encouraging. Full text: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:H.R.3162.ENR: --Declan] --- Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 12:27:03 -0800 (PST) From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <jhall@private> Reply-To: joehall@private To: Dave Farber <dave@private>, Declan McCullagh <declan@private> Subject: Federal Judge Rules Part of Patriot Act Unconstitutional http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040126/D80AN0280.html Part of Patriot Act Ruled Unconstitutional By LINDA DEUTSCH LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal judge has declared unconstitutional a portion of the USA Patriot Act that bars giving expert advice or assistance to groups designated foreign terrorist organizations. The ruling marks the first court decision to declare a part of the post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism statute unconstitutional, said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor who argued the case on behalf of the Humanitarian Law Project. In a ruling handed down late Friday and made available Monday, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins said the ban on providing "expert advice or assistance" is impermissibly vague, in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments. ... The Humanitarian Law Project, which brought the lawsuit, said the plaintiffs were threatened with 15 years in prison if they advised groups on seeking a peaceful resolution of the Kurds' campaign for self-determination in Turkey. ... "The USA Patriot Act places no limitation on the type of expert advice and assistance which is prohibited and instead bans the provision of all expert advice and assistance regardless of its nature," the judge said. ... (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Joseph Lorenzo Hall http://pobox.com/~joehall/ Graduate Student blog: http://pobox.com/~joehall/nqb/ _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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