What if, under the PATRIOT Act, federal bureaucrats could take murder cases away from local cops—then bury those cases so they’re never investigated again? What if government agents could bug your home, your car, your place of business—your entire life—with nothing more than spoken permission from a secret panel of judges? What if the Department of Homeland Security could pull police officers off the street and hold them in cells indefinitely as material witnesses—because they’re working on “sensitive” investigations? They can...