Today was a very exciting day to be an American. Or at the very least, a relieving day. Two very, very cool things happened today.<\/p>\n
First and foremost, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero declared the Patriot Act unconstitutional<\/a>! This is HUGE<\/strong>! This is probably one of the best things to happen in our government in the last 10 years. If you’re not familiar with the Patriot Act, or why it’s evil, see this 2002 ACLU press release<\/a>. In short, it allows the US government to spy on US citizens without their knowledge or consent.<\/p>\n Judge Marrero said that the Patriot Act, “offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.” In particular, the judge was ruling on a case about the government demanding Internet Service Provider logs without a warrant while also requiring the ISP not to inform its customers. Marrero said that investigators must have court approval to do that.<\/p>\n While this ruling can still be overturned (and given our over-bearingly right-wing Supreme Court, it’s possible), if it’s upheld, this could change the forget-civil-rights direction this country has been headed in for the last 7-10 years.<\/p>\n