American Civil Liberties Union
October 23, 2001


Dear Representative:

The American Civil Liberties Union is writing to urge you to reject the final
version of the anti-terrorism legislation, the Uniting and Strengthening America
By Providing Appropriate Tools Required To Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
(H.R. 3162, the "USA PATRIOT Act"). This is an historic vote that is based upon
a false dichotomy: that safety must come at the expense of civil liberties. We
can be safe and fight terrorism without substantially surrendering our civil
liberties, and without giving enormous, unwarranted power to the executive
branch - which can be used against U.S. citizens -- unchecked by meaningful
judicial review.

The process that brought you this bill is terribly flawed. We find it deeply
disturbing that once again the full House will be forced to vote on legislation
that Members have not had the opportunity to read. House offices are closed and
staff cannot even access their papers to fully prepare members of Congress for
this important vote. Once again, a bill is coming to the House floor that bears
little resemblance to the significantly modified version of the bill unanimously
adopted by the House Judiciary Committee on October 3, 2001. No conference
committee met to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions
of the bill. Regular order is being rejected and it is an offense to the
thoughtful legislative procedures necessary to protect the Constitution and Bill
of Rights at a time when the rights of so many Americans are being jeopardized.
While it contains provisions that we support, the American Civil Liberties Union
believes that the USA PATRIOT Act gives the Attorney General and federal law
enforcement unnecessary and permanent new powers to violate civil liberties that
go far beyond the stated goal of fighting international terrorism. These new and
unchecked powers could be used against American citizens who are not under
criminal investigation, immigrants who are here within our borders legally, and
also against those whose First Amendment activities are deemed to be threats to
national security by the Attorney General.

We believe that the legislation confers new powers on the Executive Branch and
federal law enforcement that go beyond what is necessary to fight terrorism.
Notwithstanding all of the exhortations by the Attorney General to pass this
legislation quickly, the House should take more time to review and fully debate
the broad new authorities given to federal law enforcement in the various
provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Among the bill's most troubling provisions are measures that would:
Permit the Attorney General to indefinitely incarcerate or detain non-citizens
based on mere suspicion, and to deny re-admission to the United States of
non-citizens (including lawful permanent residents) for engaging in speech
protected by the First Amendment.

Minimize judicial supervision of telephone and Internet surveillance by law
enforcement authorities in anti-terrorism investigations and in routine criminal
investigations unrelated to terrorism.

Expand the ability of the government to conduct secret searches -- again in
anti-terrorism investigations and in routine criminal investigations unrelated
to terrorism.

Give the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the power to designate
domestic groups as terrorist organizations and block any non-citizen who belongs
to them from entering the country. Under this provision the payment of
membership dues is a deportable offense.

Grant the FBI broad access to sensitive medical, financial, mental health, and
educational records about individuals without having to show evidence of a crime
and without a court order.

Lead to large-scale investigations of American citizens for "intelligence"
purposes and use of intelligence authorities to by-pass probable cause
requirements in criminal cases.

Put the CIA and other intelligence agencies back in the business of spying on
Americans by giving the Director of Central Intelligence the authority to
identify priority targets for intelligence surveillance in the United States.

Allow searches of highly personal financial records without notice and without
judicial review based on a very low standard that does not require probable
cause of a crime or even relevancy to an ongoing terrorism investigation.
Allow student records to be searched based on a very low standard of relevancy
to an investigation.

Create a broad new definition of "domestic terrorism" that could sweep in people
who engage in acts of political protest and subject them to wiretapping and
enhanced penalties.

In past times of tragedy and fear, our government has harassed, investigated and
arrested people solely because of their race, religion, national origin, speech
or political beliefs. We must not allow this to happen again, even as we work
together to protect ourselves from future terrorist attacks. For these reasons,
the ACLU urges you to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001. For more
information about the bill, please visit our website at http://archive.aclu.org.

Sincerely,
Laura W. Murphy
Director, ACLU Washington Office
Gregory T. Nojeim
Associate Director & Chief Legislative Counsel
Distributed by Rep. Bobby Scott (D,VA)