Cato Daily Dispatch for September 30, 2004
Subscribe to the Daily Dispatch via email
Subscribe to the Daily Dispatch via PDA (AvantGo)
(Links to outside sources were active as of the date of this dispatch; however, not all news sources maintain links to current stories indefinitely. Some links also may require registration.)
House to Vote on Federal Marriage AmendmentJudge Overrules Portion of USA Patriot Act
Russia Adopts Kyoto Protocol
House to Vote on Federal Marriage Amendment
The Washington Times reports: "Just weeks before the general election, House members will vote today on a constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage -- a move critics say is purely political and supporters say is critically needed to defend marriage from court attack.
"DeLay and other supporters say the measure -- which would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, banning same-sex 'marriage' -- likely will fall short of the two-thirds support needed to pass, but the vote will put House members on the record and raise public awareness of the issue."
In "The Federal Marriage Amendment: Unnecessary, Anti-federalist, and Anti-democratic," Dale Carpenter, associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, writes: "Proponents of the Federal Marriage Amendment claim that an amendment is needed immediately to prevent same-sex marriages from being forced on the nation. The policy debate on same-sex marriage should proceed in the 50 states, without being cut off by a single national policy, imposed from Washington and enshrined in the Constitution."
Judge Overrules Portion of USA Patriot Act
"A federal judge in New York ruled yesterday that a key component of the USA Patriot Act is unconstitutional because it allows the FBI to demand information from Internet service providers without judicial oversight or public review," reports the Washington Post. "The ruling is one of several judicial blows to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies in recent months."
In "More Surveillance Equals Less Liberty: Patriot Act Reduces Privacy, Undercuts Judicial Review," Timothy Lynch, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice, writes: "Instead of enacting a law that says whenever an FBI agent wants to demand something from someone, he can do so as long as he is following leads in a terrorism investigation, the Patriot Act accomplishes the same end indirectly. The FBI can now use boilerplate forms and submit them to federal magistrates, who `shall' approve the applications.
"The judicial check is not there. The judiciary cannot scrutinize the foundation for the Justice Department applications."
Lynch is the author of "Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Preserving Our Liberties While Fighting Terrorism."
Russia Adopts Kyoto Protocol
"Russia's Cabinet approved the Kyoto Protocol on global warming Thursday, clearing the way for the worldwide adoption of the document once the Russian parliament ratifies it as widely expected," reports the Associated Press.
"The protocol must be ratified by no fewer than 55 countries that accounted for at least 55 percent of global emissions in 1990, and Russia's participation would tip the scale."
In "Europe's Kyoto Scam," Patrick Michaels, senior fellow in environmental studies and author of the forthcoming Cato book Meltdown, (Oct. 5), writes: "If we implement Kyoto as our European friends want, it would cost us about 3 percent of GDP per year. And for what? According to climate models (whose veracity is another subject), if every Kyoto signatory lived up to the Protocol, the net amount of warming prevented in the next 50 years would be 0.13ºF, an amount too small to measure."
Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org