As a critic of some important, but not all, aspects of the Patriot Act, I must admit to being less so after reading:
Orin S. Kerr, "Internet Surveillance Law after the US Patriot Act: The Big Brother That Isn't," 97 Northwestern University Law Review 607-73 (2003). To be clear, Kerr does not claim that there are no civil liberties problems with surveillance doctrines after the Patriot Act. His principal thesis is that, in most cases, especially those for which it is heavily criticized, the Patriot Act merely extended EXISTING (and sometimes deficient) surveillance doctrines to the internet (the legal status of which was unclear before the act) along with some additional statutory safeguards. He also identifies needed reforms of the rules governing ALL electronic surveillance. His main point is that these deficiencies are not the fault of the Patriot Act. I strongly urge all critics of the Patriot Act to read this nuanced article. I read the final published version, but a prepublication version (I assume) is available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=317501 Randy _____________________________________________ Randy E. Barnett Austin B. Fletcher Professor Boston University School of Law 765 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, MA 02215 617-353-3099 (phone) 617-353-3077 (fax) http://www.RandyBarnett.com http://www.LysanderSpooner.org (Lysander Spooner page) http://www.RandyBarnett.com/SOL.htm (Structure of Liberty page)
