IT WASN’T just an ideological oddity when 26 Republican House members, including seven Tea Party-backed freshmen, joined with 122 Democrats last week to defeat a bill extending three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act. The Tea Party makes much of protecting Americans’ constitutional rights from government intrusion, and that commitment demanded a vote against the bill.

The votes of the Tea Party freshmen were decisive because the fast-tracked bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass. One objectionable provision was the so-called “roving John Doe wiretap,’’ which allows the government to obtain authority to conduct intelligence surveillance without identifying either the individual or the site to be monitored. This broad authority makes it far easier for intelligence agents to obtain search warrants. Yet the roving wiretap provision violates search-and-seizure protections by not requiring the government to tell a judge exactly what it wants to search or seize. The government should at least have to name a particular target.

Another provision the House declined to extend allows the government to seize “any tangible thing’’ — such as library or financial records — without having to disclose how that thing might be relevant to terrorists or terrorist activities. The government should have to show probable cause.

The third rejected provision of the Patriot Act, to be granted only in secret courts, permits surveillance of people who aren’t US citizens and who have no connection to foreign terrorist organizations. This power has never been used. It could establish a worrisome precedent if used. Congress should let it expire.

The Republican leadership was taken by surprise that the Tea Party newcomers sided with liberal House Democrats. Chances are, however, that Congress will extend the three troublesome provisions by the end of the month. Even so, the initial negative vote reveals a shared concern, by lawmakers of left and right, that the government, under the cloak of anti-terrorism, is exercising powers unsanctioned by the Constitution.

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.