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Part of USA PATRIOT Act found unconstitutional

Reuters is reporting that a part of the USA PATRIOT Act that addressed accessing the records of financial institutions has been found unconstitutional by a federal judge earlier today.

The ACLU argued that the anti-terrorism laws give the FBI unconstitutional power to demand sensitive information without adequate safeguards.

The judge agreed, saying the provision “effectively bars or substantially deters any judicial challenge.”

“Such a challenge is necessary to vindicate important rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” Marreo [sic] said.

Berman, Horrocks named ALA honorary members

InfoWhale writes “Here is the official, extended press release from ALA on its recent tribute given to two leading library people – Horrocks and Berman. Sandy greatly corrected the official, shorter one that was posted in January during the ALA conference – thus making it much more descriptive of his actual contributions. I wrote my own reaction to the shorter press release, calling it “The Three Continents of Sandy Berman” since the original talked about Horrocks influence on three continents. Sandy asked me not to distribute it – but now I won’t have to.
http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=news&templ ate=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentI D=56190