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AAI in the News

Civil Liberties: Pollsters, Legislators, ACLU Rally Against Anti-Terrorism Law

By Drew Clark
National Journal "Technology Daily"
Posted on Monday July 26, 2004

BOSTON—Besides the war in Iraq, the anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act is the leading factor in today’s political polarization, according to two pollsters, two legislators and the director of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The law, enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has motivated many Americans to oppose President Bush, the group said here Tuesday at a roundtable during the Democratic National Convention. ACLU and the Arab-American Institute co-sponsored the event.

“In civil liberties, there is a whole world of difference between the two parties,” said John Zogby, a pollster and president of Zogby International. “Anything that moves a few hundred or thousand votes in 16 to 20 battleground states can produce that sea change” necessary to elect presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Some elements of the law expanding police powers are set to expire in December 2005, and Bush has made renewal of those provisions and expansion of the law an important element of his campaign for re-election.

“Those early patriots that built the nation on the rule of law would oppose the ‘sneak and peak’ provisions [of the law] permitting access to library, medical, mental health, Internet service provider, and business records without your knowledge,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the Massachusetts ACLU. Zogby and others noted that many Republicans, including Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho and former Reps. Bob Barr of Georgia and Richard Armey of Texas, oppose renewal of the act and favor paring it back. That sentiment appears to be growing at the grassroots level, as the law has been rejected by 345 states and localities in symbolic votes.

“I think the tides are changing” with regard to the law, Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin said at the event. “When Larry Craig is willing to come forward with me, instead of [Attorney General John Ashcroft], it tells me there is an uneasiness on both the left and the right about how far we have gone.”

In an interview, he said “the responsible center” has concerns about the scope of the law and Bush’s push to renew it. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., also scored the Bush administration on civil liberties, and said Congress would repeal the law if Democrats seize power in the election and he controls the Judiciary Committee next year. With regard to the Bus administration, “our one salvation is their overreaching for far, far more than the American public will go for,” he said. Zogby referred to the current campaign as “the Armageddon election,” and he said the Iraq war and PATRIOT Act has cost Bush Arab-American support.

He also said his polling of all Americans has found a softening of support for Bush among Republicans and conservatives. From about 87 percent support among Republicans and 90 percent among conservatives, those numbers have fallen to 81 percent and 73 percent.

He said the PATRIOT Act played a part in that decline.