House Joint Memorial 400: AFFIRMING CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES; DECLARING OPPOSITION TO FEDERAL MEASURES THAT INFRINGE ON CIVIL LIBERTIES.
Constitutional scholars and public watchdog groups on both left and right claim that federal legislation, presidential Executive Orders, and FBI edicts since 9-11 violate many of the amendments to the Constitution contained in the Bill of Rights. For instance,
- 1. The USA PATRIOT Act, among other things
- -authorizes secret searches and seizures without notification;
- -grants federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies broad access to personal, medical, financial, library and educational records;
- -allows wiretapping and internet monitoring without customary judicial oversight.
- 2.Presidential Executive Orders since 9-11 have established military tribunals, along with secret detainments, secret evidence, and secret trials.
- 3. Changes in FBI policy by AG Ashcroft allow the FBI to conduct surveillance of religious services, internet chat rooms, political demonstrations and public meetings of any kind- actions previously prevented due to FBI and intelligence agencies abuses like COINTELPRO
- 4. Further proposals by the Bush administration have included
- -plans for organized spying by mailmen, cable installers, and service people (the TIPS program);
- -creation of a dossier on every American with complete personal, medical, financial, communications and other data (TIA, the Total Information Awareness program); and
- -reconfiguration of the internet for ease of surveillance, allowing direct monitoring of all internet and email communications without the need for a warrant.
- -Plans to extend the USA PATRIOT Act in the “Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003” -the new Act would remove judicial oversight on phone taps and search warrants, allow police spying on American citizens and groups, and in some cases strip Americans of their citizenship and rights
SJM30, Affirming Civil Rights and Liberties, guards New Mexicans against these unconstitutional federal actions. SJM30:
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