The
WHEREAS, The
WHEREAS, The General Court of Massachusetts and the people of Massachusetts continue to take pride in our early role as leaders in resisting English tyranny and in the founding of our Nation, as well as the General Court’s long and distinguished history of protecting the civil rights and liberties of the people of Massachusetts; and,
WHEREAS, The Declaration of Rights
of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, adopted as part of the
Constitution of Massachusetts in 1780, secured for the people the most extensive
protection of civil rights of any State constitution, including, most notably,
the only existing explicit protection from “all unreasonable searches and
seizures”(Art. XIV) at the time of its ratification;
and,
WHEREAS, the people of
WHEREAS, the people of Massachusetts
have consistently distinguished themselves in the service of their state and
the union against enemies both foreign and domestic in the ongoing struggle for
the freedom of the people of the United States of America, and the people of
the World; and,
WHEREAS, it is the longstanding
tradition of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to honor the memory of those who
made the ultimate sacrifice defending our nation, and furthering the principles
of Freedom and Democracy everywhere; and,
WHEREAS, on September 11, 2001, for the first time
since the War of 1812, the continental United States was subjected to an attack
from abroad when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 innocent people, XXX of whom
were from Massachusetts, by hijacking four commercial airliners, destroying the
World Trade Center in New York City, and attempting to destroy the Pentagon;
and,
WHEREAS, in response to these tragic and devastating events, Congress adopted, after minimal debate, the USA PATRIOT Act (Public Law 107-56) in an attempt to enhance law enforcement capabilities; and,
WHEREAS, while the prevention of future terrorist
attacks is a critical national priority, the measures we take to protect our
security must be guided by a respect and devotion to the Nation’s founding
principles, as enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and,
WHEREAS, while sunset review dates were attached to
certain provisions, the final bill remains, perhaps, the most severe
legislative attack on civil liberties since the passage of the Alien and
Sedition Acts in the 1790s; and,
WHEREAS, under the auspices of both the USA PATRIOT
Act and related executive orders, Arab, Muslim and South Asian immigrant
communities have been unfairly singled out for surveillance, special
registration, and interrogation by the FBI and by immigration officials; and,
WHEREAS, according to the report of
the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, dated April
2003, the above-mentioned program has caused many people to be detained for minor
immigration violations unrelated to terrorist activities, held in jail for
extended periods without sufficient access to legal counsel, without being
timely informed of the charges against them, and subjected to physical and
verbal abuse; and,
WHEREAS, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy has taken the
lead in challenging the discriminatory special “call in” regulatory program of
the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS); and,
WHEREAS, the ability of the Central Intelligence Agency to engage in domestic spying activities, with tragic repercussions, fortunately halted in the 1970s, but is now being revived pursuant to sections 223 and 901 of the Act; and,
WHEREAS, section 213 greatly lowers the
threshold required for a court to issue a search warrant; and,
WHEREAS, section 216 nearly eliminates judicial
supervision of telephone and Internet surveillance; and,
WHEREAS, section 411 gives the U.S.
Attorney General extraordinarily broad authority to designate domestic groups
as “terrorist organizations,” and,
WHEREAS, both sections 411 and 412
subject noncitizens to indefinite detention or
deportation even if they have not committed a crime; and,
WHEREAS, several sections of the bill, including 215,
218, 358, and 508, permit law enforcement authorities to have broad access to
sensitive mental health, library, business, financial, and educational records
despite the existence of previously adopted State and federal laws which were
intended to strengthen the protection of these types of records from
unnecessary and unjustified intrusion; and,
WHEREAS, there has been a strong outcry in
Massachusetts against the ability of federal authorities, under section 215 of
the Act, to obtain judicially-issued warrants for health records, financial and
credit card information as well as library or bookstore patron records based on
minimal information, and the accompanying prohibition on the providers of such
information from revealing any information regarding the request; and,
WHEREAS, Congresspersons Capuano, Frank, McGovern, Olver and Tierney opposed the USA PATRIOT Act; and,
WHEREAS, 12 cities and towns within Massachusetts, as
well as numerous municipalities outside of Massachusetts and the state
legislatures of Alaska, Hawaii and Vermont, have expressed their deep concerns
relative to the USA PATRIOT Act’s historic degradation of civil liberties, and
WHEREAS, in testimony before the
Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on June 5, 2003, U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his intention to seek new legislation
to further expand the already broad powers granted by the USA PATRIOT Act; and
WHEREAS,
the USA
PATRIOT Act, related executive orders, and proposed expansions of the USA PATRIOT
Act’s powers gravely threaten the civic values, personal freedoms and
individual liberty that are the foundation of our national existence; and
WHEREAS, these values and freedoms
are, particularly in Massachusetts, the fruits of a hard-won struggle against
tyranny, and represent a collective birthright that should not be easily or
lightly relinquished; and
WHEREAS, by protesting the present
violation of our inalienable rights and freedoms, the General Court of
Massachusetts is working to preserve that collective birthright and fulfilling
its patriotic duty to, in the words of the preamble to the Massachusetts
Constitution, protect the power of the people to “enjoy in safety and
tranquility their natural rights.”;
NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF
A. affirm its strong support for fundamental constitutional rights and its opposition to federal measures that infringe on these rights and liberties;
B. affirm its strong support for the rights of immigrants and oppose measures that single out individuals for legal scrutiny or enforcement activity based on their country of origin;
C. direct the Massachusetts State Police to:
(1) seek adequate written assurances from federal authorities that residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and individuals in the custody of the State who are placed in federal custody will not be subjected to military or secret detention or secret immigration proceedings without access to counsel and, absent such written assurances, refrain from assisting federal authorities to obtain custody of these individuals;
(2) refrain from engaging in the surveillance of individuals or groups of individuals based on their participation in activities protected by the First Amendment to the United States constitution, such as political advocacy or the practice of a religion, without reasonable and particularized suspicion of criminal conduct unrelated to the activity protected by the First Amendment to the United States constitution;
(3) refrain from using race, religion, ethnicity or national origin as a factor in selecting who is subject to investigatory activities unless race, religion, ethnicity or national origin is part of the description of a specific suspect in an active criminal investigation;
(4) refrain, whether acting alone or with federal law enforcement officers, from collecting or maintaining information about the political, religious or social views, associations or activities of any individual, group, association, organization, corporation, business or partnership unless such information directly relates to an investigation of criminal activity and there are reasonable grounds to believe that the target is involved in criminal conduct;
(5) provide advance or simultaneous notice of the execution of a search warrant to any resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts whose property is the subject of the search and refrain from participating in a joint search with any law enforcement agency absent assurances that such a notice will be provided;
(6) refrain from sponsoring, conducting training sessions for, or otherwise participating in any initiative, such as the terrorist information and prevention system, also known as TIPS, that encourages members of the general public to improperly perform law enforcement functions, such as conducting surveillance of or surreptitiously collecting information about neighbors, colleagues or customers whom they suspect of terrorist activity;
(7) refrain from the practice of
stopping drivers or pedestrians for the purpose of scrutinizing their
identification documents without reasonable and particularized suspicion of
criminal activity; and
(8) protect the trust essential
for good police work to take place in immigrant communities by reserving
immigration enforcement for the appropriate federal agencies and keeping in
place the traditional “firewall” separating criminal enforcement from
immigration enforcement;
(9) report to the Joint Judiciary Committee, the Joint Public Safety Committee, and the House and Senate Ways and Means Committee, any request by federal authorities that, if granted, would cause agencies of the state to exercise powers or cooperate in the exercise of powers in apparent violation of a city ordinance or the laws or constitution of this state or of the United States, and to file any such report with the House and Senate Clerks’ Office concurrent with its submission to the House and Senate Committees;
D. direct public libraries to post
in a prominent place within the library a notice as follows: "WARNING:
Under Section 215 of the federal USA PATRIOT Act (Public Law 107-56), records
of books and other materials you borrow from this library may be obtained by
federal agents. This law also prohibits librarians from informing you if
records about you have been obtained by federal agents. Questions about this
policy should be directed to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Department of
Justice, Washington, DC 20530."; and
E. direct public libraries to
purge all borrowing records that are not necessary for the retrieval of books
and to take all steps necessary to prevent breaches of privacy by federal law
enforcement agencies; and,
F. direct public schools and institutions of higher education to provide notice to individuals whose education records have been obtained by law enforcement agents pursuant to Section 507 of the USA PATRIOT Act
G. direct the Director of Commonwealth Homeland Security to seek periodically from federal authorities the following information in a form that facilitates an assessment of the effect of federal anti-terrorism efforts on the residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and provide to the Joint Judiciary Committee, the Joint Public Safety Committee, and the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees, no less than once every six months, a summary of the information obtained, for filing with the clerks of both the House and Senate not after the 30th of January, and the 30th of June respective to each six month period:
(1) the names of all residents of Massachusetts who have been arrested or otherwise detained by federal authorities as a result of terrorism investigations since September 11, 2001, and:
(a) the location of each detainee;
(b) the circumstances that led to each detention;
(c) the charges, if any, lodged against each detainee; and
(d) the name of counsel, if any, representing each detainee;
(2) the
number of search warrants that have been executed in
(3) the extent of electronic surveillance carried out in the Commonwealth pursuant to powers granted in the USA PATRIOT Act;
(4) the extent to which federal authorities are monitoring political meetings, religious gatherings or other activities within Massachusetts that are protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution;
(5) the number of times education records have been obtained from public schools and institutions of higher learning in Massachusetts pursuant to Section 507 of the USA PATRIOT Act;
(6) the number of times library records have been obtained from libraries in Massachusetts pursuant to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act; and,
(7) the number of times records of
books purchased by store patrons have been obtained from bookstores in
Massachusetts pursuant to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act; and,
(8) the nature and number of FBI and CIA liaison
programs, surveillance efforts, or other information-gathering programs on
college campuses in
BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to Senators
Edward Kennedy and John Kerry and Representatives Michael Capuano, William
Delahunt, Barney Frank, Stephen Lynch, James McGovern, Marty Meehan, Richard
Neal, John Olver and John Tierney; and,
BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the
President George W. Bush and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft; and
BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the
Massachusetts State Police and to all public schools, institutions of higher
learning and public libraries within the