Final Act of PATRIOT Fight
Opens
The American
Booksellers Association today urged booksellers to pick up the telephone
and fire up the fax machine to persuade House and Senate conferees to
restore the safeguards for reader privacy that were eliminated by the
USA PATRIOT Act. After months of delay, House conferees were appointed
today and may begin meeting as early as tomorrow. So it is critical for
booksellers who live in districts represented by the conferees to
immediately begin urging them to adopt the strongest reader privacy
safeguards, Oren Teicher, ABA's chief operating officer said. The Senate
bill re-authorizing the expiring sections of the PATRIOT Act is far more
protective of privacy than the House bill.
"All of the hard
work of booksellers and others involved in the Campaign for Reader
Privacy over the past several years now boils down to these upcoming
conference committee meetings," Teicher said. "We can't let up now. With
victory in sight, we must do all we can to ensure that every reader's
privacy is protected." To read a special ABAFlash, click
here.
Even before the
conference committee could meet, the House took an important step in the
direction of the Senate bill this afternoon. It approved a motion to
instruct the conferees to accept the Senate's decision to create a new,
four-year sunset period for Section 215, which authorizes the FBI to
search bookstore and library records. The House approved a 10-year
sunset. Sponsors of the motion to instruct hope that its success will
help build support for the other safeguards in the Senate bill.
Judges Express Skepticism on NSL Gags
Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit met in
Manhattan on November 2 to hear arguments on whether to order a
Connecticut library and a New York Internet service provider to comply
with search orders issued under the USA PATRIOT Act. Two of the three
judges expressed skepticism over the constitutionality of a provision of
the PATRIOT Act that imposes a permanent gag on recipients of the
orders, which are known as National Security Letters (NSLs). NSLs can be
used to obtain customer information from anyone who gives the public
access to the Internet, including bookstores. "The troubling aspect from
my standpoint is it's without limit," Senior Judge Richard J. Cardamone
said. "There's no end to how long you have to keep this secret." A
district court judge in New York has held the NSL provision
unconstitutional because of the premanent gag and because NSLs cannot be
challenged in court.
The Connecticut library has asked the court to lift the
gag so that it can speak publicly about the case and participate in the
current debate over re-authorization of the PATRIOT Act. The American
Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) has joined the
American Library Association, the Freedom to Read Foundation and the
Association of American Publishers in filing amicus briefs supporting
the library and the Internet service provider.
The Washington Post reported on November 6 that the FBI
is issuing over 30,000 NSLs annually. Republicans have joined Democrats
in expressing concern over the potential abuse of NSLs. "We should not
ever give up freedom on the basis of fear," Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK)
said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "And any freedom that we give up should
be limited in time and limited in scope."
Booksellers Lining Up to Host Talks by Investigative
Reporters
More than 40 bookstores
have indicated an interest in participating in an ABFFE program that
will bring investigative reporters into bookstores to discuss the threat
to press freedom that is posed by efforts to force journalists to reveal
their confidential sources. ABFFE is working with a reporters groups,
the MLRC Institute, to identify reporters around the country who are
willing to talk about the importance of confidential sources to
uncovering government corruption. For more information, click here,
http://www.abffe.com/reporters-talks-pr.pdf, or contact ABFFE President
Chris Finan, (212) 587-4025,
chris@abffe.com.
