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You may either find this outrageous, are neutral or get a kick out of it.
Frankly, this case is kinda interesting insofar as it might be a great legal challenge to the Patriot Act which hasn't really been done effectively. I bet that the court gets amicus curiae briefs like crazy from the Justice Dept. saying to rule that in this case alone it is unconstitution, but that it has no bearing whatsoever on other cases. Just my bet..
SourceCNN.com said:EWARK, New Jersey (AP) -- The USA Patriot Act, in the name of fighting terrorism, allows the government to find out which books and Internet sites a person has seen. It lets investigators secretly search homes and monitor phone calls and e-mail.
Now, officials in the wealthy New York City suburb of Summit are using the law to justify forcing homeless people to leave a train station -- an action that sparked a $5 million federal lawsuit by a homeless man.
Richard Kreimer, who filed the lawsuit in March after being kicked out of the train station, said the Patriot Act defense makes no sense.
"Unless they've been smoking those funny cigarettes, I can't see how my civil lawsuit has anything to do with the Patriot Act," said Kreimer, 55, who is acting as his own attorney.
But Summit officials argue they are protected by a provision regarding "attacks and other violence against mass transportation systems." Town attorney Harry Yospin, who did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday and Wednesday, has used the law as one of more than a dozen defenses in the case.
Edward Barocas, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said the Patriot Act defense is weak: "Nothing in the Patriot Act lets them kick homeless people out of train stations."
The U.S. Justice Department also criticized Summit's use of the law.
"That represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Patriot Act is," spokesman Kevin Madden said Wednesday. "The Patriot Act is a law enforcement tool to identify and track terrorists and stop them from further attacks on America. To apply it to this case is, shall we say, an overreaching application of the law."
Frankly, this case is kinda interesting insofar as it might be a great legal challenge to the Patriot Act which hasn't really been done effectively. I bet that the court gets amicus curiae briefs like crazy from the Justice Dept. saying to rule that in this case alone it is unconstitution, but that it has no bearing whatsoever on other cases. Just my bet..