U.S. to appeal ruling against Patriot Act
The Bush administration is appealing a ruling by a federal judge in Portland who struck down key portions of the USA Patriot Act as unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled last month the act cannot be used to authorize secret searches and wiretapping to gather criminal evidence -- instead of intelligence gathering -- without violating the 4th Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.
The ruling came in a challenge to the act by Brandon Mayfield, a Portland lawyer whose home and office were secretly searched and bugged after the FBI misidentified a fingerprint in the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004. The FBI apologized to Mayfield for the mistake and the federal government settled his lawsuit for $2 million.
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