The USA Patriot Act has enough controversial provisions to keep civil libertarians up at night, but I’ve always found one part of the legislation particularly troubling: the federal government’s new-found authority to seek records from libraries and bookstores on what Americans are reading.
Specifically, Section 215 of the Patriot Act gives the government the power to obtain records from a wide range of businesses and agencies, including book outlets, without notifying suspects.
If ever there was an Orwellian principle being implemented by the federal government, this is it. I know we’re engaged in a war on terrorism — an effort I fully support — and I suppose some of the bad guys may read from time to time, but I can’t help but believe that the federal government has no business checking up on which books we choose to read. It’s just First Amendment 101.
But don’t worry, Attorney General John Ashcroft tells us, this is a power the government has but doesn’t actually use.
Last week, facing fairly intense political pressure, Ashcroft released a memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller directing that the feds declassify all the previously-secret information on reviews of citizens’ reading habits.
“The number of times [the provision] has been used to date is zero,” Ashcroft said.
In fact, Ashcroft told reporters last week that concerns about civil liberties abuses are completely unfounded. The attorney general labeled the criticisms “hysterics” and said “charges of abuse of power are ghosts unsupported by fact or example.”
“The fact is, with just 11,000 FBI agents and over a billion visitors to America’s libraries each year, the Department of Justice has neither the staffing, the time nor the inclination to monitor the reading habits of Americans,” he said. “No offense to the American Library Association, but we just don’t care.”
All of this, to a certain extent, sounds reassuring. I still don’t think the federal government should have the authority to check up on our book-reading habits at all, but I’m pleased to hear Ashcroft say that federal officials, at least thus far, haven’t been abusing this provision on the poorly-named Patriot Act.
It was less reassuring, however, when I noticed that TalkLeft had remembered an AP article from a few months ago that seems to contradict everything Ashcroft said.
In fact, the AP said in June that library officials from across the country were reporting that “FBI investigators are visiting libraries and checking the reading records of people they suspect of being in league with terrorists.”
When asked for a comment or explanation, a Justice Department official told the AP that they wouldn’t comment, except to say that these searches are now legal under the Patriot Act. Hmm.
Specifically, the AP noted a study from the University of Illinois’ Library Research Center which discovered that 85 libraries reported having been approached by law enforcement officials for the records of library patrons.
Which brings us back to Mr. Ashcroft. He said last week that the provision of the Patriot Act in question had never been used and that the federal government “just doesn’t care” about which books people are reading. In June, 85 libraries reportedly were contacted for records on which books people we reading.
So which is it? Either disinterested library officials at 85 public libraries are lying or John Ashcroft is. I wonder who has more credibility…