The Week’s Bonnie Kristian writes, “Tuesday is the 20th anniversary of the Patriot Act, the sweeping authorization of invasive federal surveillance powers passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks of 2001. Congress should observe the two-decade mark by starting work to repeal the law in full.

Since 2001, the law has undergone some reform, chiefly through the USA Freedom Act and an expiration of powers in 2020.

More needs to change: https://t.co/iF9psuWSHZ

— Bonnie Kristian (@bonniekristian) October 26, 2021

Much like the Iraq War in 2003, the Patriot Act began with lies. The George W. Bush administration claimed its changes would be ‘modest’ and ‘incremental,’ characterizing the law as a means of taking ‘existing legal principles and retrofitt[ing] them to preserve the lives and liberty of the American people from the challenges posed by a global terrorist network.’ As civil libertarians argued at the time and subsequent years have demonstrated ad nauseum — not least via the 2013 revelations of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden — none of that was true.”

Read the entire column.

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New York Post: “Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that Americans should ‘be afraid of your government’ after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the FBI would probe a purported spike in threats to local school officials amid protests over mask mandates and the addition of critical race theory to curricula.

‘Moms at school boards are being told that they’re criminals, potential domestic terrorists, for the crime of dissent,’ Paul told ‘Fox News Primetime,’ ‘and I think criminalizing dissent is something that we should all be appalled with.’

Sen. Rand Paul talks to Ben Domenech about the DOJ cracking down on concerned parents at school board meetings: “I think criminalizing dissent is something that we should all be appalled with.” pic.twitter.com/NQmt1J9saM

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 6, 2021

When host Ben Domenech asked Paul what he would say to Americans who are worried that ‘if they go to their local school board and say the wrong thing, that they’re going to end up on some list that Merrick Garland goes after,’ the senator answered in no uncertain terms.

‘I would say be afraid. Be afraid of your government,’ Paul said.”

The post ‘Criminalizing dissent is something that we should all be appalled with’ appeared first on Liberty Tree.

Federalization of state and local crimes is a dangerous trend. DOJ and FBI need to stick to investigating federal crimes and Congress needs to quit inventing new federal crimes. pic.twitter.com/pHxLqJJaPH

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 7, 2021

National Review reports, “Attorney General Merrick Garland has directed the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to investigate alleged threats being made against school board officials by a growing coalition of parents who are outraged by the imposition of racialized curricula and COVID-driven shutdowns and mask mandates in their local classrooms.

The order, announced in a memo released Monday, comes after a group that represents school boards urged the Biden administration to review whether confrontations by outraged parents over COVID restrictions and critical race theory violate the Patriot Act.”

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The punk who assaulted the policeman defending my wife and I in DC went free but the Biden Admin. labels concerned parents as “domestic terrorists?” https://t.co/dSsqm6TNQQ

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 6, 2021

A mob held us hostage for ten minutes, spitting on and threatening to kill us. No charges! Fake anthrax and death threats sent to our home. No charges! Now just learned the person who called Rand’s Senate office threatening to shoot us will not be charged. I’m exhausted and angry

— Kelley Paul (@KelleyAshbyPaul) October 5, 2021

On May 28, a Republican-hating woman called Rand’s DC Senate office threatening to “shoot you all” to our staff member. She was never charged. Yet if you dare express indignation at a school board meeting about CRT or forced masks, the Biden DOJ and FBI say you’re a criminal.

— Kelley Paul (@KelleyAshbyPaul) October 5, 2021

Fox News reports, “A group that represents school boards is asking the Biden administration to review threats and violence against education administrators and schools to determine if they violate the Patriot Act and hate crime laws amid clashes between angry parents and educators over COVID-19 policies and critical race theory being taught in classrooms.

In a Wednesday letter to Biden, the National School Boards Association asked that the federal government examine whether actions can be taken to stop the vitriol and violence using the Gun-Free School Zones Act and the Patriot Act, the controversial statute enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.”

Read the entire story.

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