ACLU Tells Court: Section 215 of USA-PATRIOT Act "Chills" Free Speech

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed the first legal challenge to the USA-PATRIOT Act, taking aim at Section 215 of the controversial law that vastly expands the power of FBI agents to secretly obtain records and personal belongings of innocent people in the United States, including citizens and permanent residents. An Oregon mosque, the Islamic Center of Portland, Masjed As-Saber is one of the plaintiffs.

"Ordinary Americans should not have to worry that the FBI is rifling through their medical records, seizing their personal papers, or forcing charities and advocacy groups to divulge membership lists," said Ann Beeson, Associate Legal Director of the National ACLU and the lead attorney in the lawsuit. "We know from our clients that the FBI is once again targeting ethnic, religious, and political minority communities disproportionately," she added. "Investing the FBI with unchecked authority to monitor the activities of innocent people is an invitation to abuse, a waste of resources, and is certainly not making any of us any safer."

The ACLU filed the lawsuit in federal court in Detroit, Michigan, in July 2003, on behalf of six advocacy and community groups from across the country whose members and clients believe they are currently the targets of investigations because of their ethnicity, religion and political associations. The lawsuit names Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller as the defendants.

Fear of the USA-PATRIOT Act has caused a dramatic decline in memberships and donations at mosques and forced a church-sponsored group that aids refugees to change its record-keeping practices, the ACLU said in legal papers filed in Detroit last month. 

"Our clients have every reason to believe that in 21st Century America they will be subjected to new abuses of power under the USA-PATRIOT Act — and what’s worse, under this radical law they may never learn that the government has violated their rights," she added.

Alaa Abunijem, president of the Islamic Center of Portland, Masjed As-Saber, said in March of this year, ICPMA also was served with a subpoena not issued under the USA-PATRIOT Act.  The FBI was seeking financial records related to the "Portland Seven" defendants and their spouses. But as a result of this and other actions by the FBI, "many people who worship at ICPMA and other local mosques are now afraid to donate to their organizations because they fear their donations will provoke FBI investigation and harassment, even when they have done nothing wrong," he said. 

This First Amendment "chill" is reminiscent of an earlier era when the government attempted to shut down dissent by investigating groups like the NAACP and the Japanese American Citizens League, the ACLU said.  Notably, those groups and other civil rights, immigrant and free speech advocates filed briefs supporting the ACLU’s challenge to the law. 

"The ACLU is challenging Section 215 of the USA-PATRIOT Act because it violates the privacy rights of all Americans," said David Fidanque, Executive Director of the ACLU of Oregon.  "It threatens their First Amendment rights to say what they want, associate with the groups they choose, and freely practice their religion." 

"While we at the ACLU feel as strongly as anyone that the perpetrators of terrorism must be brought to justice, we also feel that America’s freedom – the very essence of our national character – must be protected as we respond to the threat of terrorism within our borders.  Americans can be both safe and free." 

Other groups that signed the "friend-of-the-court" briefs include American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Friends Service Committee, Japanese American Citizens League and Episcopal Migration Ministries. For a complete list of the ACLU’s clients and the groups that filed "friend-of-the-court" briefs, go to http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=13255&c=207

A hearing was held December 3, 2003, to consider the government’s motion to dismiss the case. The government argues that is has never used Section 215 of the USA-PATRIOT Act and therefore the plaintiffs have not been injured by the law.

The case is Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor et al. v. John Ashcroft, 03-72913, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division. In addition to Beeson, attorneys in the case are Jameel Jaffer of the national ACLU and Michael J. Steinberg, Noel Saleh and Kary Moss of the ACLU of Michigan.