Culture

The Patriot Act

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By Martin Leatherman, Newsdesk.org staff
This Fourth of July weekend, Americans will descend on their local parks and fire up the barbecues for a celebration of independence and liberty packed with fireworks and patriotic zeal. The Patriot Act, just four years old, has asked Americans to relinquish some of those hard-earned liberties in exchange for greater security. Passed by Congress in the emotional aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the controversial bill expanded the federal government’s investigative and intelligence-gathering powers to fight terrorism. Among other things, it allows secret searches of private property, defines terrorism broadly, expands the government’s ability to watch people, and opens Internet use and personal reading habits to federal scrutiny. Now, with portions of the bill due to “sunset” or expire, Congress has begun debating its reauthorization — and critics are targeting provisions they say are too easily abused.

Democracy

The Activist Judiciary

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Martin Leatherman, Newsdesk.org

With Representative Tom DeLay calling for the dismantling and rearranging of the courts, and three contentious federal judicial nominations up for confirmation, judicial activism is again in the spotlight. The conflict has its roots in the 1803 Supreme Court case Marbury v Madison, in which Justice John Marshall established the power of judicial review for American jurists. His ruling enables the courts to overturn legislation that is deemed contrary to the Constitution, a precedent that solidified the role of the judiciary as a separate but equal entity in federal government. Now, Republican members of Congress, saying that the courts have exceeded their mandate, have begun to push for more control. According to the Associated Press, DeLay has been investigating several ways of doing this.