AAUW organizes public forum on Patriot Act

The Kansas American Association of University Women will present a forum on the U.S. Patriot Act this month at the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics.

The forum will take place from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 25, and will be free and open to the public.

Speakers will include Eric F. Melgren, U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas; Jean K. Gilles Phillips, director of the Paul E. Wilson Defender Project in the KU School of Law; and Rosanne Goble, executive director of the Kansas Library Association.

The three speakers will address issues including whether the U.S. Patriot Act affects civil liberties and whether the act is necessary to protect American citizens.

Standing for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism,” the U.S. Patriot Act was signed into law Oct. 26, 2001, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The law expanded legal surveillance procedures and called for increased communication between intelligence agencies. It also tightened immigration rules and cracked down on money laundering and smuggling.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has begun a campaign to extend the U.S. Patriot Act, which will expire this month unless it is renewed. Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, maintain that the law infringes on constitutional rights.

At the forum, a question-and-answer session will follow speakers’ presentations.

For more information, call Marilyn Greathouse, public policy chair for the Kansas American Association of University Women, at (785) 865-3713.