Mueller insists FBI can use Patriot Act powers without abusing them News
Mueller insists FBI can use Patriot Act powers without abusing them

[JURIST] FBI Director Robert Mueller [official profile] asserted Tuesday that the agency is able to properly use the surveillance powers granted it under the Patriot Act [JURIST news archive], telling senators at a US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] hearing [materials and witness testimony] that a compliance program has been implemented to police the use of National Security Letters (NSL) [CRS backgrounder, PDF]. Mueller insisted that the Patriot Act was not the cause of FBI abuses, however, committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] told the director that the committee will "be re-examining the broad authorities we granted."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] illegally gathered data [JURIST report] from telephone and financial records of both US citizens and foreigners while searching for terrorists, according to a 130-page report [PDF text] issued by US DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine [official profile] earlier this month. Last week, Fine told [JURIST report] the US House Judiciary Committee [official website] that the confusion and abuse surrounding the use of NSLs was "unacceptable and inexcusable." AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

China passes current constitution

On December 4, 1982, the Fifth National People's Congress passed the current Constitution of China.

FDR established Federal Alcohol Control Administration

On December 4, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt established the Federal Alcohol Control Administration (FACA) by executive order under the National Industrial Recovery Act just prior to the formal end of Prohibition. FACA was charged with guiding legitimate wineries and distilleries under a system based on brewers' voluntary codes of fair competition. It effectively vanished from history after just twenty months, when President Roosevelt in August 1935 signed the Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act, lodging alcohol regulation exclusively with the US Treasury Department, where it currently remains under the jurisdiction of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, formerly the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).