Last week a federal judge ruled portions of the U.S.A. Patriot Act pertaining to surveillance powers to be unconstitutional and a violation of the First and Fourth Amendments.

In his 122-page ruling, Judge Victor Marrero said portions of the Patriot Act that allow the FBI to request customer records from Internet service providers and telephone companies violates the Fourth Amendment because it bars any judicial challenge to the requests. He also ruled that the law violates the First Amendment because it is an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech.

“On the record before it, the Court finds that in practice those rights [of unlawful search and seizure and free speech] are substantially curtailed by the manner in which the FBI administers [the law],” Marrero stated in his court opinion.

The case was brought to court by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of an unidentified Internet service provider who received a subpoena, called a national security letter, from the FBI. The letter covered 14 months and was six pages long, according to the New York Times. It asked the company to turn over customer’s names, addresses, credit card information and details of their Internet use. Under the Patriot Act, the companies were then barred from notifying customers that the information had been subpoenaed.

The ACLU called the ruling a “landmark victory.” I have to agree.

Since Sept. 11, our country has been heading down a dangerous road by violating civil rights or at the very least walking right up to the line marking such a violation and peering over. This is the first of what I hope will be many much-needed judicial reviews of the most common method used by our government to watch what its citizens do.

Although the ruling will not be enforced for 90 days to allow the Bush Administration to appeal -- which I’m sure they will do -- now is the time for the public to demand a legislative review of the Patriot Act and its policies and procedures.

The Patriot Act’s flaws lie in the very issues Marrero addressed. It is, simply, too broad and unchecked. Marrero described it as an “all-inclusive sweep” that is “compulsory, secret and unreviewable.”

It upsets the balance between national security and personal security. Individual freedoms are a valued commodity in our country. They must not be forgotten or ignored.

It is wrong to subpoena personal records and invade a person’s privacy without telling the person for whom the records belong to. This lets the government act without oversight or accountability. Who will they answer to for these actions? They should have to answer to us. But that cannot happen when we aren’t told, and better yet, when it’s illegal for them to tell us.

In the days after Sept. 11, Americans wanted nothing more than to catch the bad guys, but unfortunately their zeal gave our government far-reaching and unrestrained powers to peek into our personal lives to do it.

I will be the first one to tell you that the FBI and CIA must be given the ability and tools to find and capture terrorists. But I will not handover my civil liberties to do it. It’s time for the Patriot Act to be reviewed and reworked.