Reader Privacy Fight in Final, Critical Stages

On Friday, July 29, the final day before its summer recess, the Senate unanimously approved a bill that adds to the USA Patriot Act many of the safeguards for reader privacy sought by the book and library community since the passage of the law in 2001. The move set the stage for a showdown when Congress reconvenes in the fall and very different House and Senate bills go to a conference committee for reconciliation.

"We're in the final, critical weeks in our effort to make sure that the Patriot Act reauthorization bill signed by President Bush this fall includes protections for reader privacy," said ABA COO Oren Teicher. "[ABA and its partners in the Campaign for Reader Privacy] plan to do everything we can to ensure that the Senate version of the bill will be adopted when the conference committee meets this fall.

"We are strongly urging booksellers to redouble their efforts to collect signatures on Campaign for Reader Privacy petitions over the coming weeks. We are also asking booksellers to send ABA the signed petitions they already have. In the next few weeks, we will be setting up meetings with as many committee conferees as we can, and the petitions are a very concrete demonstration that the readers of America demand the right to read freely."

The Senate bill, S. 1389, limits searches to the records of people who are suspected terrorists or spies and people who are in contact with them, reducing the danger that that the FBI will engage in fishing expeditions in bookstore and library records.

S. 1389 also provides several other important safeguards: It gives the recipient of a Section 215 order the right to consult an attorney and to challenge the order in the secret court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA); it requires an FBI agent to obtain written approval from the FBI director or deputy director before applying to the FISA court for a search order for bookstore and library records, and the Justice Department must publicly reveal each year the number of Section 215 orders issued to bookstores and libraries. S. 1389 also provides that Section 215 will expire at the end of 2009.

In stark contrast to the Senate bill, legislation approved by the House allows the FBI to search the bookstore and library records of anyone, including people who are not suspected of a crime, whenever they are "relevant" to a counter-terrorism or counter-espionage investigation.

The Senate conferees will be Arlen Specter (R-PA), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Michael DeWine (R-OH), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Carl Levin (D-MI). The House conferees have not been chosen.

A downloadable petition form is available on BookWeb. Petitions should be sent to ABA's new address: 200 White Plains Rd., Tarrytown, New York 10591.

For more information about the Campaign for Reader Privacy, go to www.bookweb.org/read/7679.