Since 9 – 11 an incredible amount of attention has been devoted to the Patriot Act. In it’s original form it even had your neighbors snitching on you. Remember my March Column from Parkay where Rip Van Winkle awoke in the future to find Safety Monitors snitching on you? As I warned then it is not unrealistic for the Government to try something like this, and don’t for a minute think this only pertains to certain classes of bikers. I know of two MRO Meetings who have been terrorized by the Gestapo, possibly 1 MRO Run and 5 Brothers buried so deep in the system no one even knows where they are.

This monster completely circumvents the Constitution, suspending so many basic rights in the name of safety. While terrorism has changed this Country and we need to get these spineless murderers, as a Natural Born US Citizen I am guaranteed by the Constitution certain rights CAN NOT BE TAKEN AWAY……… BY ANYONE!

Luckily Patriot 1 has a sunset clause. By the time you read this there will have been public hearings all over the Country on whether to let it expire or not. While you may have missed the hearings, it’s not too late to let your feelings be known and get rid of it.

What is RICO? The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. While not easy to summarize here’s a shot, the RICO Act because a RICO actually requires proof of several underlying criminal activities (each of which have their own elements) and then proof of the elements of a RICO claim. Generally, a criminal conviction under the RICO act requires the government to prove: 1) that the defendant 2) operated or managed an enterprise 3) through which the defendant engaged in specified racketeering (or criminal) acts 4) these acts constituted a pattern and 5) affected interstate commerce. If you have been injured by a RICO violation and want to bring a civil suit, you must prove the 5 elements stated above and that 6) you were injured in your business or property 7) by reason of the violation. If you prove those seven elements as a RICO plaintiff, you're entitled to recover your costs and attorneys fees and three times your actual damages.

The third element is the most complicated because there is a long list
of specified criminal or racketeering activity, see 18 U.S.C. section
1961(1). This list includes (but is not limited to) bribery, extortion,
arson, murder, kidnapping, mail fraud, wire fraud, illegal gaming, loan
sharking, etc. Each one of these criminal acts requires proof of several elements. So, to establish a RICO violation, you need to prove these "smaller" crimes and then establish the over-arching RICO violation (see the seven elements above).

Why did they pass the RICO Act? It was sold as a way for people financially injured by criminal activity to recover damages. The RICO Act has over time, however, resulted in unethical arrests. For example, Lawyers, Bankers and Accountants have been sued under RICO for assisting clients. Civil Disobedience Groups have been sued for intimidation and extortion for their protests affecting different businesses. Now 3 guys in their Tommy Middle Finger, Bowling or Golf shirts are having a discussion about how our Government can suck, and there happens to be a Fed around, could conceivably create a real sticky situation for those 3 guys. Do some research and you will find many bad cases where RICO was used to ruin people. Thanks to Atty. Jeff Grell from Minnesota for his help in simplifying this.

On October 26 2001 President Bush signed the Patriot Act into law. With this law broad and sweeping new powers are given to Federal Law Enforcement Agency’s and much of their accountability has been eliminated. The worst part is many of these checks and balances were put into effect due to the Governments misuse of power.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fourth Amendment has just been kicked in the balls. The First, Fifth and Sixth Amendments have also been compromised. The sad part is this damn thing had so many pages to it very few who actually voted on it when it was rammed through Congress actually understood the broad scope it would have in raping the Bill of Rights.

Some of it’s more disturbing provisions are, it allows for indefinite detention of non citizens who are not terrorists. It minimizes judicial accountability on phones and the internet by law enforcement. It will open the governments ability to conduct unknown searches. Allows all agencies umbrellaed under it to share information. Gives the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the right to categorize domestic groups as terrorists. Grants government agencies access to sensitive business records. Provides a broad definition of terrorism, groups who use civil disobedience practices could be classified as terrorists. The Feds can violate attorney client privilege and it just plain allows them to spy on all Americans. Thanks to California/Arizona AIM Attorney Joe Eggleston for help on these points.

By now you get the idea no one is safe, not a natural born or naturalized US Citizen. Fortunately this monster sunsets in 2006 and 8 US cities have flat out rejected it’s desecration of the Constitution. People need to get busy and make sure it dies.

In it’s 5 year life the Patriot Act is bound to face many court challenges testing it’s validity. A well versed Constitutional Attorney should be able to defeat it. A couple problems with that are a) how many people charged under it will be able to afford the battle and b) in relation to the amount of good lawyers out there, there just aren’t enough Conservative Constitutional Attorney’s. It will be a tough fight but somehow I wonder if a 200 year old Supreme Court decision couldn’t have a hand in killing this. It is Marbury v. Madison, yes I’m referring to James Madison who would later become the Fourth President. In short the Supreme Court ruled it is not bound by an act of Congress that was repugnant to the Constitution. Lets hope today’s Court is as formidable as the one of 200 years ago.