Senate Neglects to Restore Checks and Balances to Patriot Act
MCLU Expresses Disappointment in Maine’s Senators

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Contact: Shenna Bellows, 776-5404

Portland- The Maine Civil Liberties Union today expressed disappointment that Senators Snowe and Collins voted to approve a version of the USA Patriot Act that falls short of bringing the Act in line with the Constitution.  The Senate version of the Act, which passed in the Senate today, does little to correct the major flaws in the previous conference report, and in some respects makes the conference report even worse.

“We are extremely disheartened that Maine’s Senators refused to listen to the voices of their constituents when voting on this important issue,” said Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union.  “The people of Maine have overwhelmingly called for the protection of their civil liberties, but Senators Snowe and Collins voted to approve a bill that does nothing of the sort.”

The Senate version of the Patriot Act makes virtually all of the expiring provisions of the bill permanent without including necessary changes to restore checks and balances.  While the conference report contains some improvements to the Patriot Act that reflect the tireless work of members on both sides of the aisle, the final reauthorization bill remains substantially flawed and continues to infringe on our constitutional rights. 

The MCLU is concerned that the bill passed in the Senate today includes several provisions which severely threaten civil liberties.  Among other concerns, the new version permits the records of ordinary Americans to be secretly obtained without adequate safeguards, continues to gag recipients of records demands without any prior court finding and with new criminal penalties, provides for sneak-and-peek searches while allowing such searches to remain secret for weeks, months or even years, allows secret eavesdropping and secret search orders that do not name a target or a location, creates additional death penalties, and omits modest limits on a host of additional Patriot Act powers. 

“The MCLU applauds the efforts of Senators and Representatives who worked to add civil liberties safeguards to the legislation,” said Bellows.   “It is unfortunate that the Senators from Maine ultimately voted to approve a version of the Act that does not do enough to protect the civil liberties of all Mainers.”

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