ACLU Summary of the Patriot Reauthorization Act Conference Report

In its Summary of the Patriot Reauthorization Act Conference Report, the ACLU finds numerous faults in the current version of the bill, including:

• The government can obtain your private records, like medical, library, school, and other records—without showing any connection between your activities and and a suspected foreign terrorist.
• Some 30,000 National Security Letters ("NSLs") are issued each year to obtain private records,3 and the recipients of those NSLs are under a gag order that is almost impossible to overturn. But the Patriot Act does nothing to address these abusive powers.
• The government is allowed to get "sneak and peek" search warrants to search a home or business and doesn't have to tell the owner of the premises for a month. This power can be used in cases that don't have anything to do with terrorism.

See our earlier post on the legislative history of the Patriot Reauthorization Act. That post includes a link to the Conference Report.