Sixty-four percent (64%) of American adults agree that a search warrant should be required before the government can ask Internet providers to turn over customer records. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 16% disagree and 20% are not sure.

Last week, a District Judge ruled that the provisions of the Patriot Act allowing such warrantless searches violated First Amendment constitutional guarantees and constitutional provisions concerning separation of powers. Thirty-one percent (31%) of adults say they followed news stories about the Court ruling Very Closely and another 34% followed it Very Closely.

While Americans are concerned about the warrantless searches, a survey conducted last month found that 59% believe that allowing the government to intercept phone calls from terrorist suspects makes America safer. Another survey found that 16% of Americans believe their phones have been tapped.

In the tension between protecting national security and protecting individual liberties, Americans remain evenly divided on the current balance. Thirty-two percent (32%) say the courts are too worried about protecting national security, 30% say they are too worried about protecting individual liberties, and 26% say the balance is about right.

These latest figures represent a slight shift from earlier polling and a modest increase in the number who worry that there is too much deference to national security concerns. In August , 34% said that our legal system worries too much about individual rights at the expense of national security and 27% took the opposite view. Last fall, 33% say there was too much concern for individual liberties.

Just 38% of all adults knew that the recent Court ruling found parts of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. Ten percent (10%) thought the ruling found the entire Act unconstitutional while 13% thought the ruling indicated the law passed constitutional muster. A plurality of 39% did not know or venture a guess as to the court ruling.

“The risk of investing the FBI with unchecked discretion to restrict such speech is that government agents, based on their own self-certification, may limit speech that does not pose a significant threat to national security or other compelling government interest," according to the ruling issued by U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero.

Earlier surveys have found mixed reactions to the Patriot Act.

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