Abstract

In Fact..

This section presents articles on New York City's failure to pass a resolution condemning the Patriot Act, and a details of the magazine's 138th birthday party. The New York City Council passed up an opportunity to send a birthday present to the Bill of Rights on December 15, 2003, the 212th anniversary of its ratification. Resolution 909, a measure to defend the Bill of Rights against the USA Patriot Act, was scheduled to come to a vote and was expected to pass, but City Council Speaker Gifford Miller held off on bringing the bill before the full council because, his office says, he didn't want to take attention away from Saddam Hussein's recent capture. New York City would have become the 229th locality, and the largest, to pass a resolution condemning the Patriot Act. Conveyed by Amtrak through the blizzard, Senator Robert Byrd made it to the December 14 Nation Institute dinner in New York City in time for the war's most eloquent opponent to provide his view on Saddam Hussein's capture. An emotional moment came when another man freed by Protess's proteges after seventeen years on death row--Aaron Patterson, now a candidate for the Illinois State Legislature--made a cameo appearance.