Patriot Act renewed: Democrats credited with caring about civil liberties

Reuters reports on the renewal of the Patriot Act that:

The bill was written to resolve a stalemate that pitted a broad bipartisan desire to renew the Patriot Act against largely Democratic demands to better protect civil liberties.

This provides all the information necessary. Both parties support much of the Patriot Act, but the Democrats, in contrast to the Republicans, cared about the impact on civil liberties. While the protections are not really sufficient in my view, they do move in the right direction:

One change would clarify that traditional libraries would not be subjected to a federal subpoena issued without the approval of a judge.

Another would remove a previously proposed requirement that recipients of such subpoenas provide the FBI with the name of their lawyer.

A third would allow individuals to challenge gag orders when they have been subpoenaed to produce personal information. But they would have to wait a year to do so.

The year delay before gag orders can be challenged seems a little excessive to me, but the law can be changed in the future (if the delay doesn't get challenged in courts before then).