WASHINGTON - Advocates of rewriting the USA Patriot Act are claiming momentum after the House, despite a White House veto threat, voted to restrict investigators from using the anti-terrorism law to peek at library records and bookstore sales slips.

 

.....The vote reversed a narrow loss last year by lawmakers concerned about the potential invasion of privacy of innocent library users. They narrowed the proposal this year to permit the government to continue to seek out records of Internet use at libraries.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...t_act_libraries

Kick ass for the Section 215 limits.

 

What scares me is the possibility of giving the FBI what is known as "administrative subpoenas".

 

Right now, the US government and Department of Justice must go in front of a FISA court to get the warrants for Sneak n' Peek and for the seizing of "tangible records". Of course, thanks to the Act, there is no longer probable cause needed to get the warrants but rather the simple mere "relevency" to an ongoing investigation. A FISA review court even stated that the PATRIOT Act provisions may not cut the mustard for meeting the 4th Amendment requirements but "they almost certainly come close." I guess I missed the almost certainly come close provisions when I read the Constitution.

 

If the administrative subpoena powers get through, the FBI will no longer need to go to the FISA courts to get permission for their warrants to seize records/supposed evidence.