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On Monday, December 15, 2003, the King County Council unanimously (13-0) passed a resolution in support of civil liberties and civil rights and in support of changes to the USA PATRIOT Act. Read the resolution as passed.

The resolution was originally introduced by Dwight Pelz, and cosponsored by fellow Democrats Dow Constantine, Larry Gossett, Cynthia Sullivan. Republican Rob McKenna revised the resolution to garner Republican support. The resolution calls on Congress to pass the Security and Freedom Enhanced (SAFE) Act (S. 1709), sponsored by a group of Republican and Democratic US senators, which amends specific egregious sections of the PATRIOT Act.

While the resolution that passed did not include everything we wanted, it's a step in the right direction. King County joins 225 municipalities in expressing deep concerns about civil liberties and civil rights and about the Patriot Act. SNOW and others educated many people, collected 3,500+ signatures on petitions, and generated thousands of calls and e-mails to Councilmembers. There were a number of educational forums, some of which were directly organized by SNOW, others indirectly. Many of the SNOW neighborhood groups talked about the issue and took it up in some way.

Thanks to all who worked on this. There is still much to be done to counteract the Patriot Act: to defend our rights and liberties and to oppose ethnic and religious profiling, secret detentions without charges or access to counsel, and spying on political and religious activities.

December 15th also happens to be the 212th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. New York City also passed its own resolution upholding civil rights and civil liberties in the war on terrorism on the same day.