THE ACLU AND THE PATRIOT ACT….Thanks to changes in the Patriot Act passed earlier this year, the ACLU has dropped its legal challenge:
The lawsuit [had challenged] the part of the Patriot Act that lets federal agents obtain such things as library records and medical information. The ACLU said the revisions allow people receiving demands for records to consult with a lawyer and challenge the demands in court.
Instapundit links ominously to some guy who’s convinced this was done solely for political reasons, because, you know, the ACLU is so famously gunshy about fighting for unpopular causes. And I suppose I might have gotten suckered in by this too if I hadn’t spent 30 seconds reading to the end of the story:
The group also said it is continuing its legal fight against a more frequently used provision of the Patriot Act that authorizes national security letters. Such letters allow the executive branch of government to obtain records about people in terrorism and espionage investigations without a judge’s approval or a grand jury subpoena.
I guess they haven’t given up the fight after all, midterms or no.
