Humor.

A few weeks after he signed the PATRIOT Act, Bush took matters a step further when he signed an executive order requiring that noncitizens suspected of participating in or supporting acts of terrorism be detained by the military and tried by military tribunals rather than in federal courts. At about the same time, the Justice Department took the position that it was entitled to eavesdrop on the conversations between inmates and their lawyers in order to protect against future acts of terrorism.

Of course, not all civil liberties received such cavalier treatment. Although the PATRIOT Act allows the FBI to obtain records showing what books you purchased at the local bookstore or checked out from the library — a suspect’s reading habits might suggest an unsettling interest in the architecture of tall buildings — Ashcroft has insisted that the FBI cannot review the records of gun-purchase background checks in the course of a terror investigation. [Salon]