Philadelphia Councilman Pushes Anti-Patriot Act Bill

PHILADELPHIA — A city official is urging his colleagues to join dozens of other municipalities that have adopted resolutions in defiance of an anti-terrorism law that permits unprecedented levels of domestic surveillance.

City Councilman Angel Ortiz plans to introduce a measure Thursday stating that parts of the USA Patriot Act "weaken and contradict or undermine ... basic constitutional rights."

The resolution urges that "no city employee or department officially assist or voluntarily cooperate with investigations, interrogations, or arrest procedures that are in violation of individuals' civil rights or civil liberties."

"There needs to be discussion in this country as to what's being done under the guise of national security," Ortiz said Tuesday. "It seems like you've got to be either in lockstep with this [federal] administration or classified as an enemy combatant. "

If the resolution is passed it would make Philadelphia the largest city to have passed such a measure, said Nancy Talanian, director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a Massachusetts civil liberties group.

So far, 51 cities and towns representing more than 5.7 million residents have passed similar resolutions, from Cambridge, Mass., to Fairbanks, Alaska.

More than 100 other communities nationwide — both liberal and conservative — have resolutions in the works, according to the Defense Committee, one of the leaders of the anti-Patriot Act grass-roots movement.

Critics contend that the Patriot Act, hastily crafted in that weeks immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, does little to protect against terrorism but strips Americans of long-standing and fundamental rights.

Among other things, the act allows authorities to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely; secretly monitor political groups without having to show evidence of a crime; seize library, medical and financial records; and tap phone and Internet connections. Criticism of the Patriot Act has come from groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the National Rifle Association.

The resolutions passed by municipalities cannot supersede federal law but they can influence the actions of police departments and city departments, Talanian said. For example, they can bar police departments from using municipal money to carry out racial profiling or certain kinds of federal investigations, she said.

"It doesn't ultimately have an impact of changing what surveillance is going on; the FBI can still come to do its thing," Talanian said. "But it does allow [municipalities] to say, 'We won't spend our money spying on our own people.' "

A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Patriot Act opponents also hope the effort gets the attention of lawmakers and urges them to take action.

U.S. Rep. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont Independent, plans to introduce legislation this week aimed at reducing the FBI's power to search the records of libraries and bookstores to find out what their patrons are reading.

"We feel that rather than individuals calling up their congressman, if a community makes a statement as a whole it carries a lot more clout," Talanian said.