General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I feel like the occupation of the Capitol and the impeachment [View all]Hekate
(90,627 posts)So off to the House we go, in search of adequate laws for the present day.
At which point, the DOJ has more to work with.
https://www.propublica.org/article/domestic-terrorism-a-more-urgent-threat-but-weaker-laws
But federal authorities have had more success combating international terrorists than those with a domestic focus, reflecting legal limits on investigations of American political groups, the opaque and elusive nature of the threat, and President Donald Trumps embrace of far-right groups, experts say.
One fundamental problem is that while federal statutes provide a definition of domestic terrorism, there is not a specific law outlawing it.
The reasons date to 1975, when an inquiry by the Church Committee of the U.S. Senate documented that the FBI had abused its powers by engaging in a pattern of spying on American citizens in groups ranging from the Black Panthers to the Ku Klux Klan. The government placed strict limits on the ability of the FBI and other agencies to infiltrate and track such organizations, with new laws and rules establishing more rigorous requirements for surveillance on Americans than foreigners. Today, FBI counterterrorism officials make a point of saying they target individuals rather than groups, and violent acts rather than ideologies.