Posted on: Tuesday, July 13, 2004

EDITORIAL
House drops ball on changing Patriot Act

There has been considerable attention paid to parliamentary shenanigans by Republicans in the U.S. House last week that led to the defeat of a proposal to modify the Patriot Act. What should be of greater concern is not the tricks used to defeat the proposal, but rather why the GOP found the amendments objectionable.

Democrats proposed an amendment to the law that would have prevented the Justice Department from going through library and bookstore records without a specific subpoena or warrant from a judge.

That's nothing more than the rules that govern most ordinary criminal searches today.

Under the Patriot Act, officials simply obtain secret approval from a secret court and then are free to go through records. They say the tool is needed to determine who is researching terrorist techniques or using public library computers to communicate on their terrorists plots.

No one is arguing such records should not be subject to search. But regular due-process rights should apply.

The amendment was defeated when GOP leaders kept voting open longer than the scheduled 15 minutes so that wavering Republicans could be persuaded to vote no.

That brought cries of "shame" from Democrats, including Hawai'i's Neil Abercrombie and Ed Case, who voted for the amendment.

The greater shame is that this sensible improvement to the Patriot Act had to die.