the 100 Year March
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 San Mateo County Bill of Rights Defense Committee

Resolution Opposing Local Support of the USA PATRIOT Act

Each member of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

WHEREAS all human beings are endowed with fundamental, unalienable rights and liberties;

WHEREAS respect for these liberties is essential to the maintenance of a free and democratic society;

WHEREAS the chief purpose of government is to preserve and protect liberty;

WHEREAS this purpose remains the same in times of conflict or crisis;

WHEREAS any government which fails in this purpose fails in its most basic duty;

WHEREAS San Mateo County affirms its support for efforts to bring about greater security against the threat of terrorism, but also insists that such efforts not be pursued at the expense of the civil liberties and rights of the people of San Mateo County and the United States of America;

WHEREAS San Mateo County has a long and distinguished tradition of protecting the civil liberties and rights of its citizens;

WHEREAS San Mateo County has a diverse population, including immigrants and people of Arab, Muslim, and South Asian backgrounds;

WHEREAS  San Mateo County realizes that the diversity of our population adds to the vitality, strength, and character of our community;

WHEREAS San Mateo County is governed by the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of California;

WHEREAS the United States Constitution guarantees all persons within the United States the following:

·        The rights to free speech, assembly, and association, and freedom of religion;

·        The right to privacy;

·        The right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury;

·        The right to counsel and due process in judicial proceedings;

·        The right to equal protection under the law;

·        Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures;

WHEREAS the Declaration of Rights in Article I of the California Constitution guarantees the same fundamental rights enumerated in the United States Constitution;

WHEREAS according to Article VI of the United States Constitution, all treaties entered into by the United States are the “supreme law of the land;”

WHEREAS the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the United States Senate in 1992, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948, also guarantees these same fundamental rights;

WHEREAS the following constitute a direct and serious threat to the civil liberties and rights mentioned above:

A.     The USA PATRIOT Act (H.R. 3162), which;

1.      offers a broad definition of terrorism which could ultimately subject non-terrorist political groups to surveillance, wiretapping, harassment, and criminal action (§802);

2.      allows law enforcement to conduct secret searches, perform roving wiretaps, and gain access to highly personal medical, financial, mental health, and student records (§206 and §507);

3.      authorizes law enforcement officials to force librarians and booksellers to hand over book check-out and internet use records (§215);

4.      allows FBI agents to investigate citizens for criminal activity without probable cause if they say it is for “intelligence purposes” (§218);

5.      allows law enforcement to search a person’s home without anyone present and to delay notification indefinitely (§213);

6.      gives the attorney general arbitrary power to incarcerate and deport non-citizens (§412);

B.     The Homeland Security Act (H.R. 5005), which;

1.      creates a vast new government bureaucracy that is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, the Sunshine Act, and the Federal Whistleblower Protection Act; permits corporations involved in the production of hazardous chemicals to keep information about their activities away from the public (§212-§215);

2.      establishes the use of data mining and other tools for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information about an individual’s purchases, banking, travel, and reading, without a court order and without a requirement of probable cause (§201);

3.      allows the government to request that internet service providers turn over email and other records, and enables law enforcement to install pen register and trap-and-trace devices on a computer without a court order (§225);

4.      allows for the creation of secret advisory committees, in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 and the Sunshine Act of 1976 (§871);


C.     Certain Federal Executive Orders, under which;

1.      thousands of Arab, Muslim, and South Asian immigrants have been interrogated, detained, deported, or otherwise harassed because of their religion or ethnic background, not because of actual wrongdoing (66 FR 183 at 48334, 9/20/01; Pearson Memo, 10/23/01);

2.      the press and the public have been kept in the dark about or barred from immigration court hearings (66 FR 183 at 48334, 9/20/01);

3.      the government is allowed to listen in on conversations between detained terrorist suspects and their lawyers, destroying attorney-client privilege and threatening the right to counsel (66 FR 211 at 55062, 10/31/01);

4.      FBI agents can spy on religious and political organizations without having evidence of wrongdoing (Attorney General’s Guidelines on General Crimes, Racketeering, and Terrorism Investigations, VI A 2);

5.      non-citizens can be tried in military tribunals where they can be convicted on hearsay and secret evidence by two thirds vote (President Bush’s Military Order: Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism, 11/13/01);

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that San Mateo County affirms its commitment to preserving the civil liberties and rights of all the people of San Mateo County;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that San Mateo County joins with communities around the nation in affirming its strong opposition to any federal measures that threaten constitutional rights and liberties;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that, to the extent legally possible, no county employee or department shall officially assist or voluntarily cooperate with inquiries, investigations, surveillance operations, interrogations, or arrest procedures, public or clandestine, that violate the civil liberties and rights of individuals as specified in the United States Constitution;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Sheriff’s Department of San Mateo County shall not engage in the practice of racial profiling, nor spy on or gather information at religious or political meetings, without some evidence of wrongdoing;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that public schools and institutions of higher learning within San Mateo County shall provide notice to individuals whose education records have been obtained by law enforcement agents pursuant to section 507 of the USA PATRIOT Act;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that each public library under the jurisdiction of San Mateo County shall conduct a "privacy audit" to determine what paper and electronic records are kept that provide personally identifiable information concerning a patron's use of the library's facilities, including both Internet usage and usage of other materials in the library's collection; the audit shall also determine the purpose for which such records are kept and the time period for which they are kept; upon completion of the audit, the library shall adopt a records retention policy that minimizes the amount of time that any such personally identifiable information is retained by the library;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that each public library within San Mateo County shall also post in a prominent place within the library a notice to library users as follows: “WARNING: Under Section 215 of the federal USA PATRIOT Act (Public Law 107-56),  records of the books and other materials you borrow from this library may be obtained by federal agents.  That federal law prohibits librarians from informing you if records about you have been obtained by federal agents. Questions about this policy should be directed to: Attorney General John Ashcroft, Department of Justice, Washington, DC 20530;”

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the County Manager’s Office shall request yearly the following information from the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California and the appropriate authorities at the FBI, and also determine if any information listed below is held by County Agencies:

·        The names of all residents of San Mateo County who have been arrested or otherwise detained by federal authorities as a result of terrorism investigations since September 11, 2001; the location of each detainee; the circumstances that led to each detention; the charges, if any, lodged against each detainee; the name of counsel, if any, representing each detainee; 

·        The number of search warrants that have been executed in San Mateo County without notice to the subject of the warrant pursuant to section 213 of the USA PATRIOT Act;

·        The extent of electronic surveillance carried out in San Mateo County under powers granted by the USA PATRIOT Act;

·        The extent to which federal authorities are monitoring political meetings, religious gatherings or other activities protected by the First Amendment within San Mateo County;

·        The number of times education records have been obtained from public schools and institutions of higher learning in San Mateo County under section 507 of the USA PATRIOT Act;

·        The number of times library records have been obtained from libraries in San Mateo County, and the number of times that records of the books purchased by store patrons have been obtained from bookstores in San Mateo County under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the County Manager’s Office shall transmit to the Board of Supervisors an annual report, which is to be made public, summarizing the information above and, based on such information and any other relevant information, an assessment of the effect of federal anti-terrorism efforts on the residents of San Mateo County;

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the County Manager’s Office shall send copies of this resolution to all county departments, the Governor and the Attorney General of the State of California, the President and the Attorney General of United States of America, and shall call upon our congressional representatives, Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Representatives Tom Lantos and Anna Eshoo, to actively work for the repeal of any parts of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Homeland Security Act, or any other federal acts and orders that threaten liberty.