PORTLAND -- Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield, whom the FBI wrongly accused in the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings, was back in court Monday, to argue the merits of the USA Patriot Act's provisions for surveillance of U.S. citizens.

"This is not just for me, it's for everyone," Mayfield told kgw.com.

His case is the latest legal assault on the 2001 Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the authority of law enforcement to investigate alleged acts of terrorism, both domestically and abroad.

Last week in New York, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero struck down a part of the law that allowed the FBI to demand records without the level of court supervision required for other government searches. His ruling, which is likely to be appealed, said Congress had overstepped its boundaries in approving the Patriot Act, at the expense of individual liberties.

Mayfield's case, which U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken said she intends to rule on "shortly," builds on that decision.

His lawyers, Portland attorney Elden Rosenthal and Wyoming counsel Gerry Spence, delivered impassioned arguments Monday, contending that the authority the Patriot Act grants is an assault on the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment.

That amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, without probable cause, determined by a judge, to believe that a crime has been committed.

"Last I heard was that thousands of American men and women gave up their lives to make sure we had those rights," Spence said on the steps of Portland's Federal Courhouse.

Mayfield was arrested May 6, 2004 after a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators in Madrid was incorrectly matched to him.

Before the arrest, federal authorities searched Mayfield's Portland-area home and law office, going through files and placing bugging devices in the home.

Mayfield was held in jail for two weeks before he was released, and receiving a formal apology from the FBI; late last year, he and his family settled their financial suit against the U.S. government for $2 million.

But the government has retained thousands of copied pages of the family's personal information, which Mayfield contends is a continuing violation, leaving him uncertain of where those documents might surface, who has access to them and how they might be used.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Mayfield, 41, said his family has continued to press the case because, "We believe in the right of a person to feel safe and secure in their home, in the balance between security and liberty."

Lawyers for the Justice Department have contended that Mayfield's case could not legally continue after the $2 million settlement was announced in November.

Jeffrey Bucholtz, a deputy assistant attorney general, also argued Monday that the constitutionality of the Patriot Act's provisions had been upheld by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a federal court charged with overseeing requests from the FBI and others for warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents.

As to the government's continued retention of copied documents related to the Mayfield case, Bucholtz said there was "no imminent likely future injury" to the family from the government's holding of the documents.