Day 8: 15 of Patriot Act's sections expected to fade into sunset
12:33 PM EDT on Sunday, July 11, 2004
Fifteen of the 158 sections in the USA Patriot Act will expire at the
end of 2005 unless Congress votes to enshrine them as permanent law. The
parts that will expire are contained in the act's second chapter titled
"Enhanced Surveillance Procedures."
Here are some powers that are scheduled to sunset on Dec. 31, 2005:
Section 206, which gives agents investigating terrorism cases blank
warrants to conduct "roving surveillance" of cell phones and hotel rooms.
Section 209, seizure of stored voice mail.
Section 215, allowing the secret court to issue orders demanding "any
tangible things" including "books, records, papers," etc. through the
secret Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).
Section 218, granting covert surveillance through the secret court when
foreign intelligence gathering is "a significant" reason for
surveillance rather than "the" reason.
Section 220, allowing nationwide search warrants for communication
records and stored e-mail.
Section 225, immunity for assisting agents conducting covert
surveillance authorized by the FISC.
These are some of the expanded powers in the Patriot Act's second
chapter that will not expire and are now permanent:
Section 203(a), authority to share grand jury information without
judicial oversight.
Section 208, expanding the number of judges on the secret federal court
from 7 to 11.
Section 213, allowing "sneak and peek" search warrants.
Section 216, allowing courts to issue nationwide orders to execute
track and trace devices.
Section 219, allowing courts to issue nationwide search warrants of
people and property in terrorism cases.
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