Arcata, Calif. ? More than 100 cities and one state have passed resolutions condemning the USA Patriot Act, saying it gives the federal government too much snooping power. But in this liberal fold of Northern California’s Redwood Curtain, a simple denouncement just doesn’t go far enough.

To cooperate with the act, the City Council said, was criminal.

Arcata councilman Dave Meserve stands beneath a statue of President McKinley in the center of the square in Arcata, Calif. The city has criminalized imposing the USA Patriot Act, saying it violates Americans' civil liberties.

Starting this month, a new city ordinance would impose a fine of $57 on any city department leader who voluntarily complies with investigations or arrests under the aegis of the Patriot Act, the antiterrorism bill passed after Sept. 11.

Arcata’s law is mostly symbolic, since federal law trumps any local ordinance. Still, the notion of civic disobedience is drawing plenty of attention.

The USA Patriot Act gives the government new powers to use wiretaps, electronic surveillance and other information-gathering.

“The Patriot Act has been an invaluable tool in the government’s efforts to prevent terrorist attacks,” said Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez, who said the act was constitutional and was being used only against people suspected of acting as agents of a foreign power or foreign terrorist organizations.

But Martinez calls the groundswell of resolutions “merely symbolic. We haven’t had an instance where localities are not complying.”