Interest+Groups

Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances
Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances (PRCB) is headed by former congressman from Georgia, Bob Barr. Mr. Barr represents the fundamental conservative and believes strongly that the original powers given to the government by the constitution are stead fast. He and the PRCB believe that the USA PATRIOT act has overreached its boundaries by creating powers that were not intended to ever exist under the constitution. PRCB has teamed up with the American Civil Libraries Union (ACLU) in order to attempt and repeal the PATRIOT act's provision to search all medical and library records. Due to the fact that Barr, the leader of the PRCB is a Republican and continues to present a threat to President Bush and his actions gives the government more trouble in uniting the American public in believing the national security reasoning behind the National Security Letters.

American Association of Physicians and Surgeons
As a coalition together with the ACLU, PRCB and many other interest groups, the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) has successfully rallied support from all sides of the political spectrum. The AAPS disagrees with the definitions that label certain actions as a terrorist activity. While the USA PATRIOT act is generally vague in its definitions, it does provide that anti-war and anti-abortion rallies are considered a terrorist actions. The AAPS upset about these provisions in the law as well as many other issues, and headed a bill into congress called the Protecting Rights of Individuals Act (PRI). With a legion of special interest groups, each with large bodies of political support, as well as legislation with a specific goal to curb the powers given by the USA PATRIOT act, the AAPS shows a true hope to ending the new powers of the executive branch. While currently the PRI bill is not successful, it does have hope for instituting more legislation in the future.

American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stands for ensuring the basic rights given to each citizen of the United States of America guaranteed through the constitution. While the Union faces many different issues with the government wither during a conservative or a liberal administration, especially as the ACLU is currently campaigning against the new Arizona police searching laws, the PATRIOT act has been a primary issue with the Union since its passing in 2001. The ACLU has joined with many different interest groups as well as picking up and appealing court cases Due to the continuing attacks from ACLU, the interest group has made media attention and has rallied many activists to pressure the government to restrict the powers given to the executive branch. ACLU has sent complaints to the new Congress and an instructive report on the abuses of the USA PATRIOT act passed in 2001. With the renewal of the act approaching the ACLU hopes to end the injustices they believe the law causes the American citizens to endure from Doe vs. Gonzales as well as the Connecticut Librarian cases.