It was only a matter of time: a federal judge has ruled part of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. The judge (who remains unnamed in theDenverChannel.com‘s article) was specifically ruling on the portion of the Patriot Act which banned giving “advice or assistance to groups designated […] terrorists…” In her ruling, the “judge said the ban is too vague, and therefore violates the First and Fifth Amendments.”
So the first crack finally appears in the Patriot Act. Hopefully groups like the Humanitarian Law Project will continue to challenge the Patriot Act in court. It shouldn’t take long for the bulk of the Act to follow suit and be declared unconstitutional.