WHEREAS the Township of Montclair has a diverse population, including immigrants and students, whose contributions to the community are vital to its economy, culture, and civic character; 

WHEREAS the preservation of civil rights and liberties is essential to the well-being of a democratic society; 

WHEREAS federal, state, and local governments should protect the public from terrorist attacks such as those that occurred on September 11, 2001, but should do so in a rational and deliberative fashion to ensure that any new security measure enhances public safety without impairing constitutional rights or infringing on civil liberties;

WHEREAS government security measures that undermine fundamental rights do damage to the American institutions and values that the residents of the Township of Montclair hold dear;

WHEREAS the Council of the Township of Montclair believes that there is no inherent conflict between national security and the preservation of liberty -- Americans can be both safe and free; 

WHEREAS federal policies adopted since September 11, 2001, including provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act (Public Law 107-56) and related executive orders, regulations, and actions threaten fundamental rights and liberties by:

(a)     granting law enforcement and intelligence agencies broad access to personal library, education, medical, and financial records with little if any judicial oversight;

(b) driving a wedge between immigrant communities and the police that protect them by encouraging involvement of state and local police in enforcement of federal immigration law;

(c) chilling constitutionally protected speech through overbroad definitions of "terrorism"; 

(d)     permitting the FBI  to conduct surveillance of religious services, political demonstrations, internet chatrooms, and other public meetings of any kind without having any evidence that a crime has been or may be committed;

(e)     expanding the authority of federal agents to conduct so-called "sneak and peek" or "black bag" searches, in which the subject of the search warrant is unaware that his or her property has been searched;

(f) authorizing the indefinite incarceration of non-citizens based on mere suspicion, and the indefinite incarceration of citizens designated by the President as "enemy combatants," without access to counsel or meaningful recourse to the federal courts; 

(g)     limiting the traditional authority of federal courts to curb law enforcement abuse of electronic surveillance in anti-terrorism investigations and ordinary criminal investigations;

WHEREAS these new powers pose a particular threat to the civil rights and liberties of the residents of Montclair who are Muslim, or of Arab or South Asian descent;

WHEREAS new federal legislation (including the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, also known as PATRIOT II) continues to be drafted and in some cases passed, which would impose yet further sweeping law enforcement and intelligence-gathering powers, many of which are not related to terrorism, and which would severely undermine many basic constitutional rights, as well as disturb our system of checks and balances; and

WHEREAS over 235 communities throughout the country, as well as the National League of Cities, have passed resolutions, ordinances, or ballot initiatives reaffirming support for civil rights and liberties in the face of government policies that threaten these values, and demanding accountability from law enforcement agencies regarding the use of their new powers;

BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE TOWNSHIP OF MONTCLAIR:

1.  AFFIRMS its strong support for fundamental constitutional rights and its opposition to federal measures that infringe on civil liberties;  

2.  AFFIRMS its strong support for the rights of immigrants and opposes measures that single out individuals for legal scrutiny or enforcement activity based solely on their country of origin;

3.  DIRECTS the Police Department of the Township of Montclair, to the extent permitted by law, to refrain from participating in the enforcement of federal immigration and anti-terrorism laws and policies to the extent such laws or policies infringe on civil rights and liberties, and, specifically, to:

(a) refrain from engaging in the surveillance of individuals or groups of individuals based on their participation in activities protected by the First Amendment, such as political advocacy or the practice of a religion, without particularized suspicion of criminal activity unrelated to the activity protected by the First Amendment;

(b) provide prior notice of the execution of a search warrant to any resident of the Township of Montclair whose property is the subject of such a warrant, and to refrain from participating in a joint search with any law enforcement agency absent assurances that such notice will be provided to such individuals;

(c) report to the Township Council any request by federal authorities for the Montclair Police Department to participate in any activity under the USA PATRIOT Act or other counter-terrorism measure;

4. DIRECTS public schools and institutions of higher learning within the Township of Montclair to provide notice to individuals whose education records have been obtained by law enforcement agents pursuant to section 507 of the USA PATRIOT Act;

6.  URGES all public libraries within the Township of Montclair to have a policy that ensures the regular destruction of records that identify the name of the book borrower after the book is returned, or that identify the name of the Internet user after completion of Internet use;

7.  ADVISES local booksellers that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s broad new powers to confiscate business records may compromise patrons’ privacy rights, and that, where practicable, businesses may wish to refrain from keeping records that identify the name of patrons and to regularly destroy such records that are maintained;

8. DIRECTS the Township Manager to seek semi-annually from federal authorities the following information in a form that facilitates an assessment of the effect of federal anti-terrorism efforts on the residents of the Township of Montclair:

(a)    The names of all residents of the Township of Montclair who have been arrested or otherwise detained by federal authorities as a result of terrorism investigations since September 11, 2001; the location of each detainee; the circumstances that led to each detention; the charges, if any, lodged against each detainee; the name of counsel, if any, representing each detainee; 

(b)   The number of search warrants that have been executed in the Township of Montclair without prior or simultaneous notice to the subject of the warrant pursuant to section 213 of the USA PATRIOT Act;

(c)    The extent of electronic surveillance carried out in the Township of Montclair under powers granted in the USA PATRIOT Act;

(d)   The extent to which federal authorities are monitoring political meetings, religious gatherings, or other activities protected by the First Amendment within the Township of Montclair;

(e)    The number of times educational records have been obtained from schools and institutions of higher learning in the Township of Montclair under section 507 of the USA PATRIOT Act;

(f)     The number of times library records have been obtained from libraries in the Township of Montclair under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act; 

(g)   The number of times that records of the books purchased by store patrons have been obtained from bookstores in the Township of Montclair under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act;

9.  DIRECTS the Township Manager to transmit to the Township Council semi-annually a publicly available summary of the information obtained pursuant to the preceding paragraph;

10. URGES all members of New Jersey’s Congressional delegation to:

• work to repeal the USA PATRIOT Act and other laws and regulations that infringe on civil rights and liberties 
• take a lead in Congressional action to prohibit passage of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, known as "Patriot II," and any similar legislation
• monitor federal anti-terrorism tactics;

11. URGES Governor McGreevey and appropriate members of the New Jersey Legislature to ensure that state anti-terrorism laws and policies be implemented in a manner that does not infringe on civil rights and liberties; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the provisions of this Resolution shall be severable, and, if any part or application of this Resolution is held by a court to be invalid, the validity of the remainder of this Resolution shall not be affected.

BY: Montclair Campaign to Defend Civil Liberties