https://www.wsj.com/articles/patriot-act-parents-education-school-board-free-speech-nasb-critical-race-theory-crt-covid-11634071880?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

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The Patriot Act Wasn't Meant to Target Parents
The Biden administration is abusing federal laws and agencies as instruments of political repression.
By F. James Sensenbrenner Oct. 12, 2021 6:28 pm ET
As principal author of the Patriot Act and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee during its consideration, I find it necessary to remind the Biden administration that the Patriot Act doesn't apply to parents' behavior at school-board meetings.

In recent months, parents across the country have expressed their views on issues ranging from pronoun selection and Critical Race Theory to the medical basis of certain Covid restrictions and age-inappropriate, sexually explicit curricular materials. Parents have a rightindeed an obligationto participate actively at school-board meetings to ensure the safety and well-being of their children. In Virginia's Loudoun and Fairfax counties, moms, dads, and teachers shocked by X-rated reading lists, race-based indoctrination, and anti-Christian instruction have made their voices heard.

Rather than embracing a renaissance of spirited and nonviolent civic engagement, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe recently said: "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach." Democrats' hostility toward parents seeking a voice in their children's education is not new. Of greater concern is the recent attempt to weaponize our criminal laws to eliminate these voices.

When asked this week whether the Patriot Act should be used to monitor parents at school-board meetings, White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded: "The attorney general has put out a letter. They will take actions they take, and I would point you to them for more information." Ms. Psaki's nonresponseand Attorney General Merrick Garland's memorandum directing federal counterterrorism agents to monitor parents at local school-board meetingsis emblematic of the Biden administration's unparalleled effort to transform federal laws and agencies into instruments of domestic political repression.

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The Patriot Act was enacted into law following the mass terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Its central purpose was to prevent additional foreign terrorist attacks on American soil by enhancing the collection and sharing of foreign intelligence information, restricting terrorist financing, and enhancing border security. The legislation defined terrorism as unlawful acts of violence or acts dangerous to human life intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or to affect the conduct of government by "mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping." Some provisions, particularly Section 215 and the issuance of National Security Letters, occasioned spirited and necessary debate to ensure against their misuse by federal agencies.

When considering the Patriot Act, I sought a bipartisan consensus that was reflected in its unanimous committee approval. Aware of potential abuseand over the objection of the Bush administrationI ensured the legislation contained sunset provisions and wrote a bill to amend and reauthorize the Patriot Act in 2005. In 2015, I was the author of the USA Freedom Act, which restored the original intent of the Patriot Act by reforming key federal surveillance authorities.

Freedom of expression is a touchstone of self-government. Our laws and jurisprudence draw a clear distinction between acts of terrorism calculated to influence a civilian population and the robust expression of views that sustains democratic self-government. This awareness has informed legislative consideration of the Patriot Act and subsequent revisions.

When debating the Patriot Act and other federal antiterrorism laws, nobody in either chamber of Congress could have imagined these laws would be turned against concerned parents at local school board meetings. Yet on Oct. 4, Mr. Garland issued the memorandum that will live in infamy. It directs the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. attorneys to develop "strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff." This memorandum followed a Sept. 29 National School Boards Association letter to President Biden urging the administration to use the Patriot Act to monitor parents at school board meetings.

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Enemies foreign and domestic. I always read that as foreigners who gained illegal entry. It was about the geography of evil not a category of citizens and non citizens. If it were the latter, there is a much simpler and more effective way to communicate that. Then again, shall not be infringed is beyond comprehension for some...

Time to repeal Patriot Act and Foreign Intelligence Service Act (FISA).

Fightin_Aggie said:

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Bidens leg hairs said:

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George W Bush

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Anyone who didn't see this coming has not studied history

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Nor have they studied the history of the Democrat Party in this country.

The sad thing is the Bush/Rockefeller section of the Republican Party will always trust in the goodwill of the fascist trash on the other side of aisle.

Ag In Ok said:

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Enemies foreign and domestic. I always read that as foreigners who gained illegal entry. It was about the geography of evil not a category of citizens and non citizens. If it were the latter, there is a much simpler and more effective way to communicate that. Then again, shall not be infringed is beyond comprehension for some...

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Well an alternative interpretation would be how the Cold War era would view now. `Domestic enemies' could refer to a pro-Marxist cabal that has seized control of the government by abuse of laws and excessive control of the press, and is using that to forcibly transform the country. The Biden group very much fits a domestic enemies profile by that argument. In fact, in the Cold War it was more commonly understood to possibly refer to just such subversion from the political level by presumed fellow travellers of the ComIntern.

Slippery slope is steep

I'm guilty of supporting it at the time, but I really regret that decision. Now I'm older and wiser and realize we should never give the government an inch. Ever. On anything.

Eliminatus said:

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Which was always the slippery slope many of us have been shouting to the world over the past decade.

A weapon that is created is simply that, a weapon. It doesn't care who wields it. And make no mistake, the PA was a weapon. It has just now fallen into the wrong hands. (again...)

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Look. I was as afraid as anybody after 9/11. When it came out that the FBI and the CIA were prohibited by law from talking to each other, removing that barrier as to foreign threats seemed to make sense.

But what we thought would be the CIA saying, "hey, we have been tracking this guy overseas and he's in the US now. Here's the file," is not how that turned out.

Thanks boomercons.

Goes both ways but never applaud a law when it can be used against you in the next election.

Let us also recall that the big example for the need of the FBI to support school boards was Loudoun County, VA, where they're ramming through radical leftist ideals, but more importantly where they violently arrested and removed a parent from a board meeting. Turns out that parent was Scott Smith, father of the girl raped in a HS bathroom by a "TG" student.

Scott Smith has every right to be belligerent with those fascists. They're targeting us.

More than merely belligerent. And no blue state should set any of the agendas for the center and right anyway.