Patriot Act used to defend against homeless lawsuit

asia.news.yahoo.com...


Seems a portion of the Patriot Act allows for the prosecution of those who have plan or engae in "attacks and other violence against mass transportation systems". A lawyer in NJ is using as a defense in a civil suit filed by a homeless man evicted from a train station.

Is this a fair application of the Patriot Act ? read on....

Edward Barocas, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said the Patriot Act defense is weak: "Nothing in the Patriot Act lets them kick homeless people out of train stations."

Seems this is not an application where our government is out of control, but a savvy defense bieng supplied by a lawyer. Is this a fair use of something that was created to protect us from Domestic terrorism. THe only domestic terror from the homeless is toxic B.O., annoyance for money and talking to no one.

The U.S. Justice Department also criticized Summit's use of the law.

"That represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Patriot Act is," spokesman Kevin Madden said Wednesday. "The Patriot Act is a law enforcement tool to identify and track terrorists and stop them from further attacks on America. To apply it to this case is, shall we say, an overreaching application of the law."

Seems the lawyer in the case is using the Patriot act as well as a dozen other defenses. Is this something that will become more common. Most people were paranoid that the goverment would use this to no end, but if it is bieng applied as such in the legal community, things should get interesting. Just might have to vote in a PA 2.

It sounds like the city is wary about the previous lawsuit this guy won, and wants to nip this lawsuit in the bud. But talk about using a sledgehammer to drive in a tack! Using the PA is definitely overkill and improper in this case.

But you gotta hand it to the homeless guy...he sounds like he's fairly smart, to tackle the city on some pretty legit questions.