Bookstores to Launch PATRIOT Act Petition Campaign
The American Booksellers
Association is preparing to launch a national petition campaign to restore the protections
for customer privacy that were eliminated by the USA PATRIOT Act. The petitions will be presented to members of
Congress at events held in their local districts. There
will also be a national event in Washington.
As a first step, ABA has
begun mailing out petitions in the "White Box" that is sent to Book Sense
stores. The petitions are printed and bound in
pads of 50. Bookstores that do not receive the
White Box can request a pad of petitions by calling ABA's Information Department, (800)
637-0037, ext. 1292 or 1293.
The petition campaign is intended to capitalize on
the amazing progress made last year in the effort to amend the PATRIOT Act. In early 2003, booksellers and librarians had a
hard time getting anyone to even listen to their concern that the PATRIOT Act gives the
FBI free rein to search their records. Then a
remarkable grassroots campaign undertaken by Vermont booksellers and librarians attracted
the attention of U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). In
March, Sanders introduced the Freedom to Read Protection Act (H.R. 1157), the first bill
to restrict the power granted by the PATRIOT Act. By
the end of the year, three states and over 200 communities around the country had passed
anti-Patriot Act resolutions; H.R. 1157 had 143 co-sponsors, and similar legislation had
been introduced in the Senate.
In a letter accompanying the petitions, Oren
Teicher, the ABA's chief operating officer, urged booksellers to redouble their efforts to
amend the PATRIOT Act. "Generating a few
hundred signatures from your store might not seem very useful. But remember what a handful of booksellers in
Vermont have already accomplished ....With your help, we can win this fight!" For more information, click here.
Booksellers Challenge Michigan Censorship Law
The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) Tuesday joined the Great
Lakes Booksellers Association, six Michigan bookstores and other book and library groups
in filing a federal lawsuit in Detroit challenging the constitutionality of a new Michigan
law that makes it a crime to allow a minor to examine a book that is "harmful to
minors." It is already illegal to sell
"harmful" material to minors in Michigan and most other states. But the new Michigan law goes beyond the law of
any other state by requiring booksellers to prevent any possibility that a minor can
examine "harmful" works, including novels and works of non-fiction that do not
contain pictures. Violations are punishable by
up to two years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. To
read the ABFFE press release, click here.
The plaintiffs charge that
the new law is unconstitutional because it would make it difficult for adults and older
minors to obtain books, magazines and music that they have a First Amendment right to
purchase. Booksellers will either have to segregate "harmful" material in an
"adults only" section or wrap it in plastic.
In addition, they will be forced to impose these restrictions on books and
other materials that are "harmful" to the youngest minors, including romance
novels, works relating to sexual education and health, photography and art books, and
classic literary texts.
Lawyers for the
plaintiffs hope that a hearing on their motion for a preliminary injunction blocking
enforcement of the law will be held in the next two weeks.
The bookstore plaintiffs are Athena Book Shop, Kalamazoo; Books & More, Albion;
Lowry's Books and More, Three Rivers; Nicola's Books, Ann Arbor; Schuler Books &
Music, Grand Rapids; and Shaman Drum Bookshop, Ann Arbor.
The other plaintiffs are the Association of American Publishers, the Comic Book
Legal Defense Fund, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and the International Periodical
Distributors Association.
ABFFE Urges Supreme Court Review Court in 9/11 Detainee Case
ABFFE
Monday joined the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the New York Times, the
Washington Post and other media groups in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review the
secrecy imposed by the federal courts in the case of Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel, one of the
1,200 Arab men detained in the post 9/11 security sweep.
The groups want the Supreme Court to declare that the lower courts were
wrong to seal the case without holding a hearing at which the press had an opportunity to
challenge the need for secrecy. Reporters only became aware of the existence of the case
when a clerk accidentally listed it on a public docket.
Even today, much of the information about the case remains sealed. The publicly available version of the Supreme Court
petition omits many details, including even the identities of the lower courts. If the Supreme Court accepts the case for review
and permits the press groups to participate, they will argue that actions of the federal
courts failed to comply with the First Amendment case law governing public access to court
filing and proceedings. To read their motion
to intervene, click
here.
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