Patriot Act 101

Re:I vehemently disagree with the spin
In fact, in most if not all states, library records are confidential, and librarians do have a legal (as well as an ethical) obligation to protect the privacy of those records.

Ashcroft and the Justice Dept. have responded to every effort to discuss the impact of the so-called “PATRIOT ACT” on libraries and First Amendment rights by describing librarians as “hysterical” and/or dupes of the evil ACLU. We have no idea whether or not the Patriot Act has ever been used to obtain library records; a memo expressing the official line of the DOJ is not especially persuasive in light of the fact that the Patriot Act itself makes it a crime for any library that may have been served under the Patriot Act to contradict that assertion. Is this good? Are you sure? Is any discussion of this automatically “hysteria”?

In its present form, the DOJ only has to assert to a court that it needs access to someone’s library records; it doesn’t have to provide the supporting evidence normally required for a subpoena. Is this good? Are you sure? Is any discussion of this automatically “hysteria”?

Ashcroft is also pushing for the passage of Patriot II, which would relieve DOJ even of the necessity of making the assertion of need to a court; it would give them the power to issue administrative subpoenas–with the same felony penalties for any librarian that afterwards revealed that they’d received such a subpoena. Is this good? Are you sure? Is any discussion of this automatically “hysteria”?

And, btw, “taking the law into one’s own hands” does generally refer to actions that might possibly be legal if legal authorities did them with appropriate due process, but which are illegal when undertaken on a “self help” basis by people not willing to wait for the legal authorities to act, or accept the fact that there’s no legal basis for such action. As used in this article, it’s factually wrong and intelluctually dishonest: There is no requirement that library circulation records be kept after the loaned item is returned, but there is, although Mr. Thibault is apparently too ignorant to know it, a legal obligation in most states for librarians to protect the privacy of library patrons with respect to what they choose to borrow.