This item would be about the USA Patriot Act, but . . .

<Nailing my colours to the mast> I'm a libertarian. I've been a libertarian for most of my life. Things like the USA Patriot Act just freeze my blood, and I don't even live in the United States. News items like this just defy parody or ridicule, because it's so ridiculous on the face of it.

Ignorance of the law is not supposed to be a valid defense in court, but clearly it will enjoy a new popularity as cases under the Patriot Act come up for judgement. How can you possibly know that you're obeying the law if the law is secret?

When a federal judge ruled two weeks ago that the American Civil Liberties Union could finally reveal the existence of a lawsuit challenging the USA Patriot Act, the group issued a news release.

But the next day, according to new documents released yesterday, the ACLU was forced to remove two paragraphs from the release posted on its Web site, after the Justice Department complained that the group had violated court secrecy rules.