The Little Brown Reader

Patriot II -- More Power, Please, Says Bush

So, they just want the power to violate the privacy of tens of thousands of people on the spot, on their own discretion.

Here's the question then: Why bother having warrants or judicial approval in any cases? What's the logic wall which prevents the example they give below from proceeding to the government simply always having instant access to all the hotel bases to check for any "known offender" in all fields of law enforcement?

Bush Seeks to Expand Access to Private Data

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- For months, President Bush's advisers have assured a skittish public that law-abiding Americans have no reason to fear the long reach of the antiterrorism law known as the Patriot Act because its most intrusive measures would require a judge's sign-off.

But Mr. Corallo gave a hypothetical example in which the F.B.I. received a tip in the middle of the night that an unidentified terrorist had traveled to Boston. Under Mr. Bush's plan, the F.B.I., rather than waiting for a judicial order, could subpoena all the Boston hotels to get registries for each of their guests, then run those names against a terrorist database for a match, he said.

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