Judge overturns portion of PATRIOT Act

Judge overturns portion of PATRIOT Act: "Congress passed the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act in 2001, granting law enforcement the power to request information on phone calls and e-mail correspondence from electronic communication service providers. In 2006, Congress reauthorized and amended portions of the law to only allow government agents to require that NSL recipients remain silent on the existence of such orders only if the Director of the FBI or a special agent-in-charge designated by the Director has certified that such disclosure would be dangerous. Following the reauthorization of the provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Justice reported that the use of National Security Letters had climbed quickly at the FBI. The federal law enforcement agency used NSL requests 39,000 times in 2003, 56,000 times in 2004 and 47,000 times in 2005, according to the OIG report. Judge Marrero stayed the ruling until the government can appeal."