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National Review Online discusses proposed changes to the Patriot Act:
What they most want to change is Section 215 of the Patriot Act. That section allows federal judges to order that records be provided to law enforcement when those records are sought for the purpose of fighting international terrorism. While the act does not specifically mention library records, it does not exempt them, either, so critics have latched on to the idea that the FBI is going to be poring over John Q. Public’s reading list. But criminal prosecutions can look into library records, too, when they are relevant to an investigation. Grand juries can subpoena records without the judicial and congressional oversight that Section 215 provides for.
...The Patriot Act’s provision concerning “delayed-notification” or “sneak-and-peek” searches has also come under attack. Even though it is not up for renewal this year, a bipartisan coalition of congressmen wants modifications. The law allows terrorism investigators to get a warrant for delayed-notification searches when they can persuade a judge that immediate notification would endanger someone’s life, cause a suspect to flee, result in the destruction of evidence, cause the intimidation of witnesses, or “otherwise seriously jeopardize” an investigation. (The judge decides how long notification can be delayed, although investigators can apply for extensions.)
The critics want to pare back that list of causes: They don’t want to allow delayed notification just because investigators and judges believe that immediate notification might result in witness intimidation or jeopardize an investigation. This is an unreasonable, and dangerous, position. The critics complain that judges rarely turn down requests for delayed-notification searches — but we can be sure that if they were turned down regularly, the critics would regard the denials as proof that investigators were overzealous in requesting them.
