State uses Patriot Act to view private Facebook profiles 613

ZnU

A bureaucrat, whether attorney or not, takes a stack of names to a judge for a mbutt issuance of boiler-plate warrants under the color of the Patriot Act. Nobody at that level is concerned with anything except getting the job done.

The President of the United States is on record as saying that he needed no court order to wiretap anyone - and is the legality of a Patriot Act warrant going to slow down a bureaucrat? Who is going to fire the bureaucrat or put him in jail for doing his job?

Whether relevant or not, it happens. Will anyone bring suit against the government when it does happen? Does anyone have the resources to individually challenge the government?

The real problem with the Patriot Act is that it was never needed. After 9-11 it was dragged out, almost immediately for Congress to rubber stamp. With the on-going hysteria of that time, Congress voted it in - without bothering to read it, or debate the necessity for it. This is also how it got ratified the second time. Few read it or debated it.

When the government grants itself a tool, it will use it until outraged citizens somehow stop it. Good luck with the PA.

Cheers, Bama Brian Libertarian