[IP] Re: Little-known?!?! Provision in Patriot Act Rears its Ugly Head

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu
Date: January 26, 2007 11:24:58 AM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: ip@v2.listbox.com
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Little-known?!?! Provision in Patriot Act Rears  
its Ugly Head

> From: Ethan Ackerman <eackerma@u.washington.edu>
> Date: January 25, 2007 5:21:16 PM EST
> To: dave@farber.net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Little-known?!?! Provision in Patriot Act Rears its
> Ugly Head

> I'm all in favor of remedying mistakes - better late than never! - but
> it is interesting that these 4 Senators are only now to remedy a bill
> they voted in FAVOR of, each of them at least twice, without even
> trying to amend the bill at the time.

Does anybody have any actual hard evidence that these 4 Senators  
*knew* the
full implications of what they were voting in favor of?

Public Law 109-177 was 87 pages long, and had a *lot* of changes that  
you
really can't wrap your brain around without doing a before/after read of
every single proposed change.

For the curious, here's the actual *complete* text of the offending  
section:

SEC. 502. INTERIM APPOINTMENT OF UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS.
     Section 546 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by
striking subsections (c) and (d) and inserting the following new
subsection:
     ``(c) A person appointed as United States attorney under this
section may serve until the qualification of a United States Attorney
for such district appointed by the President under section 541
of this title.''.

The old text is still available at:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode28/ 
usc_sec_28_00000546----000-.html

So - read the old, and read the new, and ask yourself if it's  
"obvious" that
it's possible to use that to first force out an attorney, and then
*intentionally fail to request* your new appointee approved by the  
Senate.

While you're at it, go through the *other* 86 3/4 pages, and do a  
similar
analysis for each provision.  Then ask yourself if you still want to  
feel
outraged that nobody noticed....





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