SF 3066

as introduced - 83rd Legislature (2003 - 2004) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                             A resolution
  1.2             affirming the Minnesota Legislature's commitment to 
  1.3             the civil freedoms guaranteed by the constitutions of 
  1.4             Minnesota and the United States. 
  1.5      
  1.6      WHEREAS, the State of Minnesota affirms its distinguished 
  1.7   record of protecting the civil freedoms of its residents under 
  1.8   the Constitution of Minnesota; and 
  1.9      WHEREAS, the Minnesota Legislature believes that a number 
  1.10  of provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act threaten fundamental rights 
  1.11  and civil liberties, including: 
  1.12     Section 206, which effectively eliminates judicial 
  1.13     supervision of telephone and Internet surveillance, and 
  1.14     Section 213, which greatly lowers the threshold required 
  1.15     for a court to issue a search warrant and permits law 
  1.16     enforcement to perform searches with no one present and to 
  1.17     delay notification of the search of a citizen's home, and 
  1.18     Section 411, which gives the U.S. Attorney General 
  1.19     extraordinarily broad authority to designate domestic 
  1.20     groups as "terrorist organizations," and 
  1.21     Sections 411 and 412, which give the Attorney General power 
  1.22     to subject noncitizens to indefinite detention or 
  1.23     deportation even if no crime has been committed and 
  1.24     encourage ethnic, religious, and racial profiling, and 
  1.25     Sections 215, 218, 358, and 508, which permit law 
  1.26     enforcement authorities to have broad access to sensitive 
  1.27     mental health, library, business, financial, and 
  1.28     educational records despite the existence of previously 
  1.29     adopted state and federal laws which were intended to 
  1.30     strengthen the protection of these types of records, and 
  1.31     Sections 507 and 508, which impose an unfunded mandate on 
  1.32     state and local public universities to collect information 
  1.33     on students that may be of interest to the Attorney 
  2.1      General, and 
  2.2      Section 215, which violates the intent of Minnesota 
  2.3      Statutes, section 13.40, providing for the protection of 
  2.4      private library users' data; and 
  2.5      WHEREAS, the Minnesota Legislature believes that a number 
  2.6   of provisions of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 threaten 
  2.7   fundamental rights and civil liberties, including: 
  2.8      Title II, which allows federal government officials to 
  2.9      probe into all aspects of the private lives of citizens, as 
  2.10     well as foreign nationals, without a search warrant, and 
  2.11     without proof of criminal wrongdoing and specifically 
  2.12     creates a database on every citizen of such information as 
  2.13     all communications (telephone calls, e-mails, or Internet), 
  2.14     banking transactions, credit card purchases, prescriptions, 
  2.15     school records, medical records, employment, and travel 
  2.16     records, and 
  2.17     Title II and Title VIII, Subtitle I, which undermine the 
  2.18     Privacy Act of 1974, which limits what federal government 
  2.19     agencies may do with personal and private date; and 
  2.20     WHEREAS, the Minnesota Legislature believes that a number 
  2.21  of executive orders, military orders, and justice department 
  2.22  directives threaten fundamental rights and civil liberties, 
  2.23  including: 
  2.24     Executive Order 13228, which promotes the exchange of 
  2.25     sensitive personal information with and among state and 
  2.26     local governments and private entities, and 
  2.27     Military Order of November 13, 2001, which establishes 
  2.28     secret military tribunals for anyone deemed by the Justice 
  2.29     Department of the United States to be an "enemy combatant," 
  2.30     and 
  2.31     U.S. Attorney General's Guidelines of May 30, 2002, which 
  2.32     eliminate United States Justice Department regulations 
  2.33     against COINTELPRO-type operations by the Federal Bureau of 
  2.34     Investigations (covert activities that in the past targeted 
  2.35     domestic groups and individuals), and 
  2.36     Military Order creating secret military tribunals (3 C.F.R. 
  2.37     2001 Comp. Pres. Doc. 918, 66 FR 57833), which could also 
  2.38     be used to designate any foreign national a suspected 
  2.39     terrorist, or as aiding terrorists, and to detain, try, 
  2.40     convict, and possibly execute that person without public 
  2.41     trial, access to counsel, observation of the presumption of 
  2.42     innocence, or even proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt, 
  2.43     and with no right to appeal; and 
  2.44     WHEREAS, the Justice Department is permitted to monitor and 
  2.45  wiretap conversations between lawyers and the federal prisoners 
  2.46  who are their clients, without court order or supervision, under 
  2.47  Code of Federal Regulations, title 28, section 501.3; and 
  2.48     WHEREAS, new legislation has been drafted or introduced 
  2.49  which contains numerous new, sweeping law enforcement and 
  2.50  intelligence-gathering powers, many of which are not related to 
  3.1   terrorism, and which would severely dilute, if not undermine, 
  3.2   many basic constitutional rights, including the Homeland 
  3.3   Security Enhancement Act of 2003 (S. 1906), the Intelligence 
  3.4   Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (H.R. 2417), the Joint 
  3.5   Terrorism Task Force Enhancement Act of 2003 (H.R. 3439), the 
  3.6   Anit-Terrorism Intelligence Tools Improvement Act of 2003 (H.R. 
  3.7   3037), the Antiterrorism Tools Enhancement Act (H.R. 3037), the 
  3.8   Pretrial Detention and Lifetime Supervision of Terrorists Act 
  3.9   (H.R. 3040), the Terrorist Penalties Enhancement Act (S. 1604), 
  3.10  the Clear Act (H.R. 2671), the Victory Act, the Domestic 
  3.11  Security Enhancement Act (also known as PATRIOT II); NOW, 
  3.12  THEREFORE, 
  3.13     BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota 
  3.14  that it supports the sunset of key provisions of the USA PATRIOT 
  3.15  Act and increased Congressional oversight over the role of the 
  3.16  agencies responsible for enforcing the law. 
  3.17     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of 
  3.18  Minnesota that it urges Congress to restore civil liberties and 
  3.19  roll back the USA PATRIOT Act, by measures such as the Civil 
  3.20  Liberties Restoration Act, the SAFE Act of 2003 (H.R. 3352), the 
  3.21  Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act (H.R. 3171), the 
  3.22  Otter-Kucinich-Paul Amendment barring funding for "sneak and 
  3.23  peek" searches, the Surveillance Oversight and Disclosure Act of 
  3.24  2003 (H.R. 2429), and the Freedom to Read Protection Act (H.R. 
  3.25  1157). 
  3.26     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of 
  3.27  Minnesota that it urges the President, the Justice Department, 
  3.28  the military, and other executive agencies to review, revise, 
  3.29  and rescind executive orders and policies adopted since the 
  3.30  terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that limit or 
  3.31  compromise the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and the 
  3.32  Bill of Rights. 
  3.33     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of 
  3.34  Minnesota that it reaffirms the state's policy on racial 
  3.35  profiling as codified by Minnesota Statutes, section 626.8471, 
  3.36  and encourages the state's law enforcement personnel to continue 
  4.1   using only legitimate reasons to stop and apprehend any person. 
  4.2      BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of 
  4.3   Minnesota that it requests that the Office of the Minnesota 
  4.4   Attorney General offer legal support to any public library which 
  4.5   is subject to a federal suit or administrative enforcement 
  4.6   action for refusing to comply with the provisions of the USA 
  4.7   PATRIOT Act related to library patrons' records. 
  4.8      BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the 
  4.9   State of Minnesota is directed to prepare copies of this 
  4.10  memorial and transmit them to the President of the United 
  4.11  States, the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Clerk of 
  4.12  the United States House of Representatives, the Attorney General 
  4.13  of the United States, the Secretary of the United States 
  4.14  Homeland Security Department, the Attorney General of the State 
  4.15  of Minnesota, the Governor of the State of Minnesota, the 
  4.16  Executive Director of the American Library Association, and 
  4.17  Minnesota's senators and representatives in Congress.