The passage of the USA PATRIOT Act in Oct. 2001 has had an intruding effect on college campuses and has led civil liberty groups to call the act unconstitutional.

The PATRIOT Act, short for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, gives federal law enforcement agencies increased abilities to gather information on suspects believed to have ties to terrorism.

One of the new powers allows law enforcement to seize library records of people suspected of terrorism, including records from college campuses.

This area of the bill was drafted after it was discovered that the terrorists of Sept. 11 had checked out many books, including flying manuals, information that may have tipped off the FBI right before their hijacking.

Many cities and counties have passed resolutions not to obey the PATRIOT Act, but if the City of Sacramento or the county were to pass such a resolution, Sacramento State could not comply with it.

“We are part of the state; not the city or county. It would be up to the state to decide whether we would protest or not,” said University Counsel Donna Selnick.

The American Library Association has pointed out that libraries that are served with a warrant under the PATRIOT Act can get legal counsel to make sure that everything follows the law.

Sacramento State is ready to make sure that no unjust actions are taken.

“If the FBI or Homeland Security decide to check us out, we will make sure they follow the letter of the law,” Selnick said.

The U.S. government is in the process of drafting PATRIOT II, a bill that widens the scope of the original legislation, and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union raised concerns about the bill.

The ACLU claims that PATRIOT II allows the federal government to engage in illegal activity as long as they have permission from the executive branch of the government. The ACLU also contends that the act criminalizes associating with any organization the government deems as terrorist, and it limits defense attorneys from challenging “secret” evidence. The ACLU also charges that the act allows for the sampling and cataloguing of innocent Americans’ genetic information without a court order or consent of the person.

“The new Ashcroft proposal threatens to fundamentally alter the constitutional protections that allow us to be both safe and free,” said Timothy H. Edgar, an ACLU legislative attorney. “If it becomes law, it will encourage police spying on political and religious activities, allow the government to wiretap without going to court and dramatically expand the death penalty under an overbroad definition of terrorism.”

The FBI could not be reached for contact by deadline.

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