PATRIOT Act Showdown Looms

The battle over the re-authorization of the expiring sections of the PATRIOT Act is expected to conclude during the week of October 17, when conferees meet to reconcile the bills passed by the House and Senate. House conferees will probably be chosen late this week. Staff members will begin meeting next week to hammer out a compromise to be presented to the conferees for a vote the following week.

The Campaign for Reader Privacy continues to urge its supporters to call and write their representatives in Washington in support of the Senate re-authorization bill, S. 1389, which is more protective of reader privacy than the House bill. Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been circulating a letter, to be presented to House conferees when they are named, urging them to adopt S. 1389. One hundred forty-two members of the House have signed the letter so far, including eight Republicans.

The search for Republican support for S. 1389 received a boost this week when eight national business groups, including the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, endorsed the bill in a letter to the conferees. Their letter praised the Senate bill for strengthening safeguards for business records sought under Section 215. "We support the revision in the Senate bill that requires a statement of fact and some linkage between the records sought and an individual suspected of being a terrorist or spy," it read. The other signatories were the Association of Corporate Counsel, Business Civil Liberties Inc., the Financial Services Roundtable, and the National Association of Realtors.


ABFFE Urges Supreme Court to Lift Connecticut Library Gag

ABFFE this week urged the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a gag order that is preventing a Connecticut librarian from talking about the chilling effect of a National Security Letter (NSL) that seeks to compel the release of patron information. It joined the American Library Association, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and the Association of American Publishers in filing an amicus brief in support of an emergency motion to lift the gag that has been filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the Connecticut librarian. "Congress is only days away from final action of the re-authorization of the PATRIOT Act, including the section that expanded the use of NSLs to obtain patron records from libraries," ABFFE President Chris Finan says. "It is absolutely imperative that the librarian in this case have the opportunity to speak about the threat that NSLs pose to reader privacy."

The ACLU filed suit on behalf of the Connecticut librarian in early August, challenging the constitutionality of the section of the PATRIOT Act that expanded the use of NSLs and urging the court to lift the gag order so the librarian could participate in the debate over re-authorization of the PATRIOT Act. NSLs are a type of subpoena that the FBI can issue without court review to obtain the records of "electronic communications service providers," including a list of Web sites visited by a patron using a computer terminal in a library, bookstore, or other business that offers Internet access to the public.

On September 9, a federal judge ordered the gag lifted, rejecting the government's contention that publicly identifying the library would harm national security. The government appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which has refused to lift the stay until it holds a hearing. The ACLU decided to appeal to the Supreme Court when it became clear that Congress might re-authorize the PATRIOT Act before the appeals court rules.

The New York Times reported on September 21 that a Web site operated by the federal district court in Bridgeport, Connecticut, had inadvertently identified the recipient of the NSL as Library Connection, an association of 26 public and academic libraries based in Windsor, Connecticut, that share an automated library system. One of the arguments in the amicus brief is that the gag should be lifted because the identity of the recipient has been revealed already.

Banned Books Victory in Fayetteville, Arkansas

ABFFE and several other free expression groups won a banned books battle on September 15 when the Fayetteville, Arkansas, school board lifted restrictions it had imposed on three sex education books. The board voted, four to three, to drop its May 2005 requirement that students obtain parental permission to check out It's So Amazing, It's Perfectly Normal, and The Teenage Guy's Survival Guide. The restriction prompted ABFFE, the Association of American Publishers, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English, and PEN American Center, to send a letter to Fayetteville Public Schools Superintendent Bobby New that "strongly urged" him to resist efforts to get the district to review books in school libraries and "to impose a parental consent requirement on all students."

In addition to the letter by the free expression groups, the Fayetteville board appears to have been influenced by its attorney's opinion that it would lose a legal challenge. He pointed to the 2003 decision in a case overturning a ban on Harry Potter books in the schools in Cedarville, Arkansas. ABFFE took the lead in filing an amicus brief in that case.

Tell Us About Your Banned Books Week!

As the 23rd annual Banned Books Week came to a close on October 1, ABFFE began to plan for an expanded celebration next year. The centerpiece of its efforts will be the new online Banned Books Week handbook that was distributed for the first time this year at http://www.abffe.com/bbw-handbook.htm. We plan to expand the handbook using your ideas, so if you participated in Banned Books Week, let us know by sending photos (as .jpg files), event summaries, and other feedback to info@abffe.com. Thanks!