California Enacts Resolution Critical of Patriot Act

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We're pleased to share this great news with you. Please forward

this news release to any news organizations you can, to reinvigorate

the PATRIOT Act reauthorization debate. You can also add a sentence

about your own resolution after the first paragraph, to give it local

flavor. Senator Russ Feingold needs all the support he can get for

his amendments.

Thank you for all you do!

Bill of Rights Defense Committee

 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, FEBRUARY 17, 2006

CONTACT:

Nancy Talanian, 413-582-0110, Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Hazem Kira, 510-252-9858, California Civil Rights Alliance

California Enacts Resolution Critical of PATRIOT Act

Sacramento, CA. On Thursday, February 16, the California Senate

voted 23-10 in favor of Senate Joint Resolution 10 relative to the

USA PATRIOT Act, making California the 404th government entity and

the largest of eight states to have done so. The other seven are

Alaska, Colorado, Hawai’i, Idaho, Maine, Montana, and Vermont.

Beginning in 2002, eleven California counties and 53 cities have

passed resolutions. The combined populations of states and

communities that have enacted resolutions is now nearly 87

million†" roughly one in three U.S. residents. The California

Assembly passed the resolution on January 3, 2006.

The Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) commends State Senator

Liz Figueroa, who introduced the resolution last year, and her

colleagues in the Senate and Legislature for their principled stand

in defense of Californians’ civil liberties. Republicans Tom

McClintock and Sam Aanestad were among those who voted for the

resolution.

 

Said BORDC’s director, Nancy Talanian, “The California resolution

sets a standard we hope Congress will follow as it considers

reauthorizing several controversial sections of the PATRIOT Act and

the administration’s approval of warrantless wiretaps. The

resolution states that no state resources will be used to collect

information based on residents’ activities that are protected by

the First Amendment, or to scoop up personal records without a direct

connection between the records sought and suspected criminal

activity.â€

California’s resolution also observes that government security

measures “should be carefully designed and employed to enhance

public safety without infringing on the civil liberties and rights of

innocent persons in the State of California and the nation.â€

The BORDC congratulates Hazem Kira of the California Civil Rights

Alliance, which spearheaded the California effort, and its 23 member

groups such as California’s three ACLU chapters, the Green Party

and Libertarian Party of California, peace and justice groups,

several interfaith organizations and local Bill of Rights Defense

groups throughout California. Amnesty International Western Region,

Asian Law Alliance, American Muslim Voice and people in many

California ethnic communities also wrote letters and did grassroots

organizing throughout the campaign.

 

The passage of the California resolution has the potential to affect

the PATRIOT Act debate well beyond California’s borders, as

Congress considers the PATRIOT Act reauthorization.

 

Congress members with more civil liberties resolutions in their

districts tend to be willing to take a strong stand in defense of

civil liberties. BORDC data show that the 174 representatives who

opposed a PATRIOT Act reauthorization compromise bill on December 14,

2005, were four and a half times as likely to have one or more

resolutions passed in their districts as the 251 members who voted in

favor. The Senate filibustered over that compromise bill’s

inadequate civil liberties safeguards. Talanian explains, “If you

go further, and compare the vote of the House of Representatives in

October 2001, when only 66 representatives voted against the PATRIOT

Act, to December 2005, when 174 representatives voted against the

reauthorization, it is clear we’re making progress in turning our

government’s attention towards our fundamental liberties. So we

expect continued positive results now that the most populous state in

the union has come to the defense of the Bill of Rights.â€

 

Media Advisory:

 

California resolution text:

http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/bill/sen/sb_0001-

0050/sjr_10_bill_20050418_introduced.html

 

Bill of Rights Defense Committee:

Home page at http://www.bordc.org

List of resolutions by state (PDF) at

http://www.bordc.org/resources/Alphalist.pdf

 

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