64% Agree with Court Ruling on Patriot Act
from Rasmussen Reports
Sixty-four percent (64%) of American adults agree that a search warrant should be required before the government can ask Internet providers to turn over customer records. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 16% disagree and 20% are not sure.
Last week, a District Judge ruled that the provisions of the Patriot Act allowing such warrantless searches violated First Amendment constitutional guarantees and constitutional provisions concerning separation of powers. Thirty-one percent (31%) of adults say they followed news stories about the Court ruling Very Closely and another 34% followed it Very Closely.
While Americans are concerned about the warrantless searches, a survey conducted last month found that 59% believe that allowing the government to intercept phone calls from terrorist suspects makes America safer. Another survey found that 16% of Americans believe their phones have been tapped.
In the tension between protecting national security and protecting individual liberties, Americans remain evenly divided on the current balance. Thirty-two percent (32%) say the courts are too worried about protecting national security, 30% say they are too worried about protecting individual liberties, and 26% say the balance is about right.
These latest figures represent a slight shift from earlier polling and a modest increase in the number who worry that there is too much deference to national security concerns. In August , 34% said that our legal system worries too much about individual rights at the expense of national security and 27% took the opposite view. Last fall, 33% say there was too much concern for individual liberties.
Just 38% of all adults knew that the recent Court ruling found parts of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. Ten percent (10%) thought the ruling found the entire Act unconstitutional while 13% thought the ruling indicated the law passed constitutional muster. A plurality of 39% did not know or venture a guess as to the court ruling.
“The risk of investing the FBI with unchecked discretion to restrict such speech is that government agents, based on their own self-certification, may limit speech that does not pose a significant threat to national security or other compelling government interest," according to the ruling issued by U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero.
(The article is here.)
Sixty-four percent (64%) of American adults agree that a search warrant should be required before the government can ask Internet providers to turn over customer records. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 16% disagree and 20% are not sure.
Last week, a District Judge ruled that the provisions of the Patriot Act allowing such warrantless searches violated First Amendment constitutional guarantees and constitutional provisions concerning separation of powers. Thirty-one percent (31%) of adults say they followed news stories about the Court ruling Very Closely and another 34% followed it Very Closely.
While Americans are concerned about the warrantless searches, a survey conducted last month found that 59% believe that allowing the government to intercept phone calls from terrorist suspects makes America safer. Another survey found that 16% of Americans believe their phones have been tapped.
In the tension between protecting national security and protecting individual liberties, Americans remain evenly divided on the current balance. Thirty-two percent (32%) say the courts are too worried about protecting national security, 30% say they are too worried about protecting individual liberties, and 26% say the balance is about right.
These latest figures represent a slight shift from earlier polling and a modest increase in the number who worry that there is too much deference to national security concerns. In August , 34% said that our legal system worries too much about individual rights at the expense of national security and 27% took the opposite view. Last fall, 33% say there was too much concern for individual liberties.
Just 38% of all adults knew that the recent Court ruling found parts of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. Ten percent (10%) thought the ruling found the entire Act unconstitutional while 13% thought the ruling indicated the law passed constitutional muster. A plurality of 39% did not know or venture a guess as to the court ruling.
“The risk of investing the FBI with unchecked discretion to restrict such speech is that government agents, based on their own self-certification, may limit speech that does not pose a significant threat to national security or other compelling government interest," according to the ruling issued by U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero.
(The article is here.)
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