Drop That Book and Step Away Slowly.

A First Amendment-destroying bill that did pass is the comically titled USA Patriot Act, a gargantuan assault on the entire Constitution and the notion of justice in general. Much has been made of this law – which was passed in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks – especially its destruction of judicial process and attorney-client privilege, its expansion of surveillance and secret searches, and its green light for the CIA to conduct domestic operations. But one new power under the law has been almost completely overlooked.

Under the Patriot Act, the feds can demand a list of the books you've purchased from booksellers or have borrowed from the library if you're suspected of involvement in “terrorism,” which – as we've seen recently – can mean whatever the authorities want it to mean. But surely the FBI still has to get a warrant in order to execute such a search, right? Strictly speaking, yes. The problem is that the warrant comes from the infamous Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), a secret Star Chamber located in the Justice Department that is completely anonymous and unaccountable. Its rulings are sealed forever. No one even knows the identities of the judges who sit on it.