<H4>Patriot Act gets official constitutional rebuke</H4>

In a lawsuit involving the ACLU just now made public, a federal judge in New York has ruled the Internet snoop and search provisions of the Patriot Act violate both the First and Fourth Amendments.

Here’s the key graf from the AP story:

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero of New York ruled in September that the law violates the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and the secrecy clause violates the First Amendment because it is a prior restraint on speech.