July 30, 2003: ACLU Files First-Ever Challenge to USA PATRIOT Act: Tennessee Agency is a Plaintiff

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Contact: Hedy Weinberg, ACLU-TN
615-320-7142

ACLU Files First-Ever Challenge to USA PATRIOT Act:
Tennessee Agency is a Plaintiff

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today filed the first legal challenge to the USA PATRIOT Act, taking aim at a section of the controversial law that vastly expands the power of FBI agents to secretly obtain records and personal belongings of innocent people in the United States, including citizens and permanent residents.

Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services (Bridge) in Knoxville, Tennessee is one of the six organizations represented in the ACLU lawsuit. The six advocacy and community groups from across the country have clients and members who believe they are currently the target of investigations because of their ethnicity, religious, and political associations.

"Ordinary Americans should not have to worry that the FBI is rifling through their medical records, seizing their personal papers, or forcing charities and advocacy groups to divulge membership lists," said Ann Beeson, Associate Legal Director of the National ACLU and a lead attorney in the lawsuit.

"We know from our clients that the FBI is once again targeting ethnic, religious , and political minority communities disproportionately," she added. "Investing the FBI with unchecked authority to monitor the activities of innocent people is an invitation to abuse, a waste of resources, and is certainly not making any of us any safer."

Mary Lieberman, Executive Director of Bridge, was approached twice by FBI agents seeking information about Iraqi refugees. The second time, the FBI served Bridge with a subpoena for all records relating to its Iraqi clients.

"Many of our clients were granted asylum because they helped the American military during Desert Storm and were persecuted by Saddam Hussein," Lieberman said. "It is unacceptable that the United States government is now treating them like criminals and terrorists."

Because the FBI subpoena served on Bridge was not issued under the PATRIOT Act, Bridge was able to fight it in court. However, Lieberman said she is concerned that the FBI could return with a PATRIOT Act order that she and her staff could not challenge or even discuss publicly.

According to ACLU-TN Executive Director Hedy Weinberg, "Section 215 gives vast powers to the FBI that severely compromise the Fourth Amendment rights of political refuges who have already suffered tremendous government abuse in their former homelands. In addition, the free speech and privacy rights rights of dedicated non-profit service providers who help settle political refuges and the businesses who hire them are under attack.

"Section 215 was specifically intended to authorize FBI to obtain information about innocent people. And there is little doubt that it is being used against minorities and immigrants disproportionately. The targets of Section 215 are never notified that their privacy has been compromised. Moreover the law includes a gag provision that prohibits charities, political organizations, and all other businesses served with Section 215 orders from disclosing, even in the most general terms, that the FBI has sought information," said Weinberg.

In addition to Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, the groups participating in the lawsuit are Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor, which operates a mosque and school in Ann Arbor, Michigan; American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a national civil rights organization based in Washington D.C.; Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, a human services organization based in Dearborn, Michigan that operates a medical clinic as well as a center for refugees and torture victims; Council on American-Islamic Relations, a grassroots membership organization based in Washington D.C.; and The Islamic Center of Portland, Masjed As-Saber, which operates a mosque and school in Portland, Oregon.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit, Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor et al v. John Ashcroft and Robert Mueller, in the United States District Court for the Eastern Division of Michigan (Southern Division). ACLU is seeking a declaration that Section 215 is facially unconstitutional and a permanent injunction against its enforcement.

ACLU attorneys in the case are Ann Beeson and Jameel Jaffer of the National ACLU and Kary Moss, Michael Steinberg, and Noel Saleh of the ACLU of Michigan.

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