Original June 10 proposed Cambridge City Council order opposing the USA Patriot Act

Order #21.    June 10, 2002
COUNCILLOR DAVIS
COUNCILLOR DECKER
COUNCILLOR MURPHY

• WHEREAS: The residents of the City of Cambridge wish to honor the memory of all those who have died as a result of the September 11 crimes and their consequences; and
• WHEREAS: The City of Cambridge has a tradition of inclusion and extending protections to all its residents as embodied in its Human Rights Ordinance; and
• WHEREAS: The Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Massachusetts guarantee those living in the United States the following rights: Freedom of speech, assembly and privacy; Equality before the law and the presumption of innocence; Access to counsel and due process in judicial proceedings; and Protection from unreasonable searches and seizures; and
• WHEREAS: We believe these civil liberties are precious and are now threatened by the USA PATRIOT Act, which: All but eliminates judicial supervision of telephone and Internet surveillance; Greatly expands the government's ability to conduct secret searches without warrants; Grants unchecked power to the Secretary of State to designate domestic groups as "terrorist organizations"; Grants power to the Attorney General to subject non-citizens to indefinite detention or deportation even if they have not committed a crime; Grants the FBI broad access to sensitive medical, mental health, financial and educational records about individuals without having to show evidence of a crime and without a court order; and
• WHEREAS: Federal Executive Orders issued since passage of the USA PATRIOT Act further endanger the rights and security of both citizens and non-citizens who speak and act legally in opposition to government policies through: Establishing secret military tribunals for terrorism suspects; Authorizing eavesdropping on confidential communications between lawyers and their clients in federal custody; Lifting Justice Department regulations against covert, illegal counter-intelligence operations by the FBI that in the past targeted domestic groups and individuals; Limiting disclosure of public documents and records under the Freedom of Information Act; and
• WHEREAS: Cambridge's representative in Congress Michael Capuano, along with his Massachusetts colleagues, Representatives Frank, McGovern, Olver, and Tierney, found the USA PATRIOT Act inappropriate and dangerous enough to join 66 other representatives in voting against it; and
• WHEREAS: This law and these executive orders particularly target foreign nationals and people of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent but could affect any one of us in the USA acting legally and speaking against in opposing government policy and
• WHEREAS: In Zadvydas v. Davis this past session the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that "the Due Process Clause applies to all 'persons' within the United States, including aliens, whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent"; and
• WHEREAS: A 1985 City Council resolution declared the City of Cambridge "A Sanctuary City" in which city departments and employees are committed to protect refugees from: requests for information about, or conditioning receipt of city services on, citizenship status; "Investigations or arrest procedures, public or clandestine, relating to alleged violations of immigration law..."; and Deportation and dangerous returns to their homelands; and
• WHEREAS: Through its diversity committee, its support for the Immigrant Voting Rights proposal, and its annual Holocaust commemoration resolution, the City of Cambridge has gone on record "affirming of our diversity" and the need to "be eternally vigilant against all forms of bigotry in our community and elsewhere"; now therefore, be it
• RESOLVED: That the City of Cambridge reaffirm its status as "A Sanctuary City," move beyond fear and through grief to respond with love and compassion by defending the human rights protections and civil liberties for all spelled out in the Bill of Rights and the Massachusetts constitution because, without these, little is left of the democracy or justice they intend to protect; and be it further
• RESOLVED: That the City of Cambridge affirm its commitment to embodying democracy, to embracing and defending the human rights and civil liberties now under siege, to guaranteeing the economic security required to make those liberties viable for all, regardless of citizenship status, gender, racial identification, religious affiliation, age, or country of origin; and be it further
• RESOLVED: That the City Council declares that no City of Cambridge department or employee, to the extent legally possible, violate this city's existing and herewith reaffirmed policy to serve as a sanctuary for the persecuted; and further
• RESOLVED: That the government of the City of Cambridge act in the spirit of our state and federal Constitutions by asking local and state police, the local U.S. Attorney's office, and the FBI to:
  • Report to citizens regularly and publicly the extent to and manner in which they have acted under the USA PATRlOT Act or new Executive Orders, including disclosing the names of any detainees;
  • Not participate, to the extent legally permissible, in law enforcement activities that threaten civil rights and civil liberties of the people of Cambridge, such as surveillance, wiretaps, and securing of private information, which the Act and Orders authorize;
  • End racial profiling in law enforcement and detentions without charges; and
  • Openly work for the repeal of the parts of the Act and Orders that violate civil rights and civil liberties.

Go to Amended Order that passed on June 17

Return to Cambridge Civic Journal