The Patriot Act

On Tuesday the United States Supreme Court hears cases about the controversial Patriot Act, and whether or not it violates people's freedom of speech and expression. The Patriot Act makes it illegal for any United States citizen to help a group deemed as a terrorist organization in any way. The interesting fact is that this not only includes aid in bomb making, combat training, etc, but that it also includes an American talking to a designated terrorist organization about how to resolve issues peaceably. The Humanitarian Law Project is involved in such activities. The president of the organization, Ralph Fertig, has been arrested the the United States government many times. He is arguing that the government has no constitutional right to punish somebody for promoting peace in an international incident. Perhaps the most complex part of this case is whether or not the actions of this organization and others like it actually do more harm than good. Even though they may be attempting to push peace, do their actions eventually endanger the United States. Endangering the United States seems to be the primary issue. In my opinion, a group should be able to talk to a terrorist organization in a peaceful manner as long as those talks do not endanger the United States in almost any way. The only problem is that this is a hard thing to judge and enforce. The link to the article is here.