Several provisions of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law Congress passed after September 11, expire this year.(The Week ...)

Several provisions of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law Congress passed after September 11, expire this year. The bill's critics on the left and the right want to use the moment to win some modifications to the law. But their suggested changes would be either harmful or unnecessary. They object to a section of the law that allows federal judges to order that records be provided to law enforcement when those records are sought for the purpose of fighting international terrorism. While the act does not specifically mention library records, it does not exempt them, either, so critics have latched on to the idea that the FBI is going to be poring over John Q. Public's reading list. But grand juries could subpoena library records long before Patriot, and without the judicial and congressional oversight that Patriot provides. The law also specifically requires that no investigation can proceed "solely upon the basis of activities protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution." The critics object that the act forbids recipients of an order to disclose that they got it. But secrecy here is unavoidable: Terrorism investigators cannot do their jobs while constantly tipping off the suspects. The New York Times warns that the government will "seize an entire database--all the medical records ...