[Peace-discuss] Patriot Act

[Alfred Kagan]

Here is the latest on the Patriot Act, from the library perspective.  
The events listed at the end will be in Chicago in case you happen to 
be there at the right time.  ALA is the American Library Association.


USA PATRIOT Act

The ALA Washington Office has released preliminary results from a 
survey of law enforcement activity in public and academic libraries and 
its effect on library policy and patron behavior and attitudes.  Survey 
results indicate a total of at least 137 legally executed requests by 
federal and state/local law enforcement in both academic and public 
libraries have taken place since October, 2001 – 63 legally executed 
requests for records in public libraries and 74 legally executed 
requests in academic libraries.  The study has already received major 
press attention, including an article in the New York Times (6/20/05).  
More results will be released at the Washington Office Update during 
the ALA Annual Conference.  See www.ala.org

		SAFE Act (S. 737 and H.R. 1526)

	Supported by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and advocacy groups, 
the Security and Freedom Ensured Act (SAFE) seeks to correct some of 
the excesses in the hastily-enacted USA PATRIOT Act and to protect 
Americans’ civil liberties by making modest but important changes to 
several of the USA PATRIOT Act’s most troublesome provisions:
¬	SAFE would protect the privacy of library, bookseller and other 
personal records by requiring a finding that specific, articulable 
facts giving reason to believe the party whose records are sought is a 
foreign power or an agent of a foreign power before a court order for 
the records is issued.
¬	SAFE would restore the “agent of a foreign power standard” for using 
a National Security Letter (NSL) and require the government to show 
that there are specific and articulable facts giving reason to believe 
that communications facilities registered in the name of the person 
whose records are sought have been used to communicate with an 
individual who is engaging or has engaged in international terrorism or 
clandestine intelligence activities that involve or may involve a 
violation of the criminal statutes of the U.S. or a foreign power or an 
agent of a foreign power.

Senate Intelligence Committee Markup of PATRIOT Act

	June 7, in an 11-4 vote, the Senate Intelligence Committee approved 
legislation to reauthorize and expand the USA PATRIOT Act.  While the 
text of the final bill has not yet (10 June 2005) been made public, it 
is believed the proposed legislation would have the following effects:
¬	It would make permanent, with one exception, the USA PATRIOT Act.  
The only exception, section 223, [currently] protects privacy by giving 
victims of unlawful government surveillance a court remedy; the Senate 
bill would allow that section to expire.
¬	The Senate Intelligence Committee bill would expand the use of 
“administrative subpoenas,” eliminating prior court review of FBI 
library and other private records demands for intelligence gathering 
purposes.  The new records power could be used to obtain all tangible 
things, including library records, business records, medical records, 
etc.  A gag order would be attached. The new power would mean that the 
FBI would be unlikely to use Section 215, as administrative subpoenas 
would be simpler and quicker to obtain – and have only after-the-fact 
judicial supervision.
¬	The Senate Intelligence Committee bill would offer some modification 
to Section 215, such as allowing a recipient of a FISA (Foreign 
Intelligence Security Act) records search order to consult with an 
attorney or other person necessary to comply with the request, and 
making the standard for issuing an order explicitly “relevant to” 
(rather than the current low standard of “sought for”).
¬	The Senate Intelligence Committee bill would create new statutory 
authority for intelligence investigators to track mail of ordinary 
citizens.  It would add a new section to FISA on “mail covers,” which 
would allow intelligence investigators to track, without probable 
cause, the outside of any sealed mail sent or received or the contents 
of any unsealed mail – without any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

Saturday, June 25, 8:00-10:00 Sheraton, Chicago BR VIII-X, ALA 
Washington Office Update will include the announcement of the 
preliminary results of the USA PATRIOT Research Survey, a major survey 
of the Impact  and Analysis of Law Enforcement Activity in Public and 
Academic Libraries.  The survey--which was commissioned by the 
Washington Office and sponsored by the Carnegie, Knight and Ford 
Foundations--found that there have been multiple contacts by federal, 
state and local law enforcement in academic and public libraries. The 
survey also found that librarians are unclear about the correct way to 
respond to law enforcement requests.  The Washington Office will work 
together with OIF, ALTA and ACRL to create an educational program on 
law enforcement and libraries.

Monday, June 27, 8:00-10:00am, McCormick Place, Grand Ballroom B/C, 
join ALA President Carol Brey-Casiano for a screening of 
“Unconstitutional,” a feature-length documentary about the USA PATRIOT 
Act by filmmaker Robert Greenwald.  The film was written and directed 
by journalist/filmmaker Nonny de la Peña.  A panel discussion featuring 
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald and Colleen Connell, Executive 
Director, ACLU of Illinois, will follow the screening.

Monday, June 27, 1:30-3:30pm, McCormick Place S403, “Intellectual 
Freedom: A Casualty of War?” – Co-sponsored by the ALA Intellectual 
Freedom Committee, the Association of American Publishers Freedom to 
Read Committee, and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free 
Expression, the session will explore the history of intellectual 
freedom in wartime and strategies for book and information communities 
to help maintain liberties.  Speakers include Geoffrey R. Stone (Harry 
Kalven Jr. Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of 
Chicago Law School, author of Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime 
from The Sedition Act of 1798 to The War on Terrorism) and Floyd Abrams 
(law firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel; the William J. Brennan Jr. 
Visiting Professor of First Amendment Law at the Columbia Graduate 
School of Journalism; author of Speaking Freely: Trials of the First 
Amendment).	



Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu
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