[CPProt.net] ACLU sues to block FBI access to library records

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

ACLU sues to block FBI access to library records 

By The Associated Press,
First Amendment Center Online staff 
08.26.05 
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit to block
the FBI from obtaining records from an organization possessing information
about library patrons.

The civil liberties advocacy group released a government-censored version of
the lawsuit yesterday. The case, ACLU v. Gonzales, originally was filed
under seal Aug. 9 in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn., because the
Patriot Act, the law under which the FBI acted, bars the organization or its
attorneys from "disclosing to any person" that the FBI has demanded
information.

ACLU Associate Legal Director Anne Beeson said the FBI and Justice
Department had censored the document and allowed release of that version.

The ACLU said its client "possesses a wide array of sensitive information
about library patrons, including information about the reading materials
borrowed by library patrons and about Internet usage by library patrons."

The censored document makes clear the client is a member of the American
Library Association.

The document strongly suggests the client is a library or library system and
its manager. But because of provisions of the Patriot Act and the fact that
some businesses that supply libraries are members of the library
association, it is at least possible the client is a business that provides
Internet access to a library system. Beeson said the government would not
allow her to clarify that.

U.S. District Judge Janet Hall has scheduled an Aug. 31 hearing in
Bridgeport on the group's request to lift the gag order so its client can
participate in debate over the Patriot Act, which Congress is considering
reauthorizing.

"Our client wants to tell the American public about the dangers of allowing
the FBI to demand library records without court approval," Beeson said. "If
our client could speak, he could explain why Congress should adopt
additional safeguards that would limit Patriot Act powers."

Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller declined to comment on the ACLU
lawsuit or on the number of such requests the government has made. The FBI
also declined to comment.

With key information blacked out, the released document reveals very little
of the underlying case.

On an undisclosed date, the FBI delivered what is known as a national
security letter to the ACLU's client demanding "any and all subscriber
information, billing information and access logs of any person or entity
related to" something or someone which is blacked out. It said the
information was relevant to an investigation of terrorism or spying.

Issued by the FBI without review by a judge, NSLs were authorized in 1986 by
the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. They are used to obtain
electronic records from "electronic communications service providers."

Such providers are not limited to Internet service companies but now also
include universities, public interest organizations and almost all
libraries, because most provide access to the Internet.

The original act allowed the FBI to get records of a person or group
suspected of acting on behalf of a foreign power, or under 1993 amendments,
the records of someone thought to be communicating with such a foreign agent
about international terrorism.

The Patriot Act in 2001 removed the requirement that the records sought be
those of someone under suspicion. Now an innocent person's records can be
obtained if the FBI considers them relevant to a terrorism or spying
investigation.

In the past, debate over federal investigators' access to library records
has centered on a separate section of the Patriot Act, known as the library
provision. That provision authorizes federal officials to obtain "tangible
items" like business records.

While the library provision does not specifically mention bookstores or
libraries, critics say the government could use it to subpoena library and
bookstore records and to snoop into the reading habits of innocent
Americans. Earlier this year, the Justice Department said federal
investigators had not used that provision of the Patriot Act to obtain
library or bookstore records.

Last September in another ACLU lawsuit, a federal judge in New York struck
down the NSL provision as unconstitutional under the First and Fourth
Amendments on grounds that it restrains free speech and bars or deters
judicial challenges to government searches. That ruling is suspended pending
an appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Because the NSL provision was enacted permanently in 2001, it was not part
of Congress' debate this summer over extension of some Patriot Act
provisions. But Beeson said the House bill extending the Patriot Act would
amend this provision "to explicitly make it a crime for our client in this
case to talk - even to contribute to the Patriot Act debate." The Senate
bill does not contain that provision.

Neither the House nor Senate versions of the Patriot Act extension would
forbid anything the FBI did in this case, Beeson said. Congress will resume
debate on the Patriot Act extension this fall.