A panel discussion Saturday at Kansas University on the U.S. Patriot Act easily could have been subtitled “The Great Divide.”

On one side was the chief enforcer of federal laws in Kansas who said the act was an effective tool in the federal arsenal to battle terrorists bent on destroying the United States.

On the opposite side was a KU legal expert who said the covert police actions the act allows were chipping away at rights guaranteed to Americans and will lead to abuses against law-abiding citizens.

About 50 people gathered to hear discussions about the act’s consequences at the panel discussion at the Dole Institute of Politics.

“I think it is very important for everyone to be extremely vigilant about their rights and freedoms,” said one of those who attended, Rosalea Snow, president of the Shawnee Mission chapter of the Kansas American Association of University Women.

The association sponsored a forum about the act and brought in guest speakers that included Eric Melgren, U.S. attorney in Kansas; Jean K. Gilles Phillips, director of the Paul E. Wilson Defender Project at the KU School of Law; and Rosanne Goble, executive director of the Kansas Library Assn.

The Patriot Act was passed by Congress six weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It was sought by President Bush and his administration to increase the legal capabilities of law enforcement and intelligence agencies and prosecutors in preventing similar attacks.

But some say the act allows investigators to delve too far into the privacy of Americans. Among concerns are making it easier to obtain warrants to tap telephone conversations, look at library book and Internet surfing habits, and home and property searches without immediate notification of an individual.

In Lawrence, a group calling itself the Lawrence Bill of Rights Defense Committee is fighting the prospect of a Patriot Act II passage in Congress. It also is attempting to get the City Commission to affirm Bill of Rights support and call for a repeal of the Patriot and Homeland Security acts.

From left, Rosanne Goble, executive director of the Kansas Library Assn.; Eric Melgren, U.S. attorney for Kansas; and Jean K. Gilles Phillips, director of the Paul E. Wilson Defender Project in the Kansas University School of Law, serve on a discussion panel about the Patriot Act. The Kansas American Association of University Women sponsored the discussion Saturday at the Dole Institute of Politics.

Misunderstood

Melgren, however, thinks the Patriot Act is misunderstood.

“We still must show the courts all of the things we are supposed to show them” to obtain warrants, he said.

The biggest change in phone-tapping laws allows investigators to get a tap for a person as an individual, and not for each phone line or service he might switch to, Melgren said.

Melgren also maintained that library checkout information can only be sought in investigations of terrorist threats in which national security is at risk.

As for searching homes without notification of homeowners, Melgren noted that homeowners still have to be notified at some point after the search.

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“We’re not doing this and then telling people months and months later about this,” he said.

Melgren also denied that the Patriot Act allowed the government to target peaceful dissent groups. Investigations of groups only take place when the group meets standards as a domestic terrorism threat, he said.

The Patriot Act has allowed federal authorities to disrupt terrorist cells in Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., and elsewhere, Melgren said.

Repeat of past errors

Phillips, however, said the Patriot Act allowed the federal government to use expanded powers in routine crime investigations by claiming there is a possibility of a terrorist or national security link.

Phillips noted such powers led to similar abuses in the 1950s and 1960s when civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. came under scrutiny.

“It seems to me we’re setting ourselves up for a repeat of history,” Phillips said.

The Patriot Act is eroding government and law enforcement checks and balances, Phillips said.

“I think you can become so paranoid about your security that you give up your liberties,” Phillips said.

Investigators can produce special warrants requiring libraries to turn over book records on anyone the government thinks is involved in suspicious activities, including use of library meeting rooms and notes a librarian may have made while helping someone, Goble said.

Verla Jones, Leavenworth, who is also a member of the Association of University Women, said the forum was balanced and educated her about the Patriot Act. It also unnerved her.

“It scares me to think that people have the ability to look at my (library) material without me knowing it,” she said.