Silicon Valley: A Tamil-American physician and Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) have filed a lawsuit against the US Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law that was enacted just weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The lawsuit, filed in a Los Angeles Court on August 5, challenges a section of the law that criminalises the provision of "expert advice and assistance" to proscribed organisations. The Patriot Act is being widely criticised for infringing on civil liberties.

"In its rush to pass the Patriot Act just six weeks after the September 11 attacks, Congress overlooked one of our most Fundamental Rights (the right to express our political beliefs), especially those that are controversial," says CCR Senior Attorney Nancy Chang.

"Now it is up to the judiciary to correct Congress' excesses."

CCR's motion was filed in a pending lawsuit, Humanitarian Law Project. It challenges a Patriot Act amendment to the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, a law that makes it a crime to provide material support to any group designated by the Secretary of State as a foreign terrorist organisation.

The law, rarely enforced before September 11, has become the lynchpin of the Justice Department's domestic criminal war on terrorism -- virtually every anti-terrorism prosecution filed since September 11 has included a charge under this statute.

PTI