Patriot Act Readings

Patriot Act Section 215
ALA: Resolution on the USA Patriot Act
Bottum: The Library Lie

I'm glad I read these articles in the order that I did: the Patriot Act section in question, then the ALA's response, and then "Library Lies" from SHUSH. It sounds like there's certainly a potential threat to peoples' privacy, but that it's unclear how often, or even whether, the threat will become a reality.

But wait. A quick search for "patriot act libraries" (on Wikipedia, naturally) turned up this citation:

On August 26, 2005, The New York Times reported that according to the ACLU, the FBI is demanding library records from a Connecticut institution as part of an intelligence investigation. This would be the first confirmed instance in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation has sought library records, federal officials and the ACLU said. Interestingly, though, the government did not seek the records under section 215, but instead used "National Security Letters," which are the FISA equivalent of grand jury subpoenas and do not require a court order and thus are easier to use than section 215.

So it appears that the potential may have become real… except that pre-existing rules were used rather than the Patriot Act.

It deeply troubles me that the provision is in place, and I feel that Bottum's semi-suggestion to exempt libraries would be a good first step toward mitigating the situation. A lot of things in government deeply toruble me, though, and time will tell whether the threat of the Patriot Act is real and significant, or largely theoretical. Hopefully we can trust librarians everywhere to raise the alarm (as unnamed sources, if need be) if the secret police do come swooping in.