Patriot Act perverts grand jury process.

• Position: Your Life - Brief Article

Under the guise of "combating terrorism," Congress has weakened some of the key safeguards of the grand jury process, most importantly, the limitations on the dissemination of information revealed during grand jury hearings. In "A Grand Facade: How the Grand Jury Was Captured by Government," co-author Timothy Lynch, director of the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice, Washington, D.C., explains how measures like the Patriot Act and its proposed renewal increase the likelihood that prosecutors can use the sweeping subpoena power and unfettered investigation authority of the grand jury system to circumvent constitutional protections.

Under the Patriot Act, grand jury material can be disclosed to a host of Federal agencies with duties unrelated to Federal law enforcement, arguably violating the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The authors routinely trace the development of the grand jury from a buffer between the citizenry and...