In testimony yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee's
Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights,
George Christian, the executive director of the Library Connection and
one of the four "John Doe" librarians in Connecticut who successfully
challenged an FBI national security letter last year, called on Congress
to reconsider the USA Patriot Act and restore reader privacy safeguards
and other civil liberties damaged by the Act.
"Our saga should raise a big patriotic American flag of caution about
how our civil liberties are being sorely tested by law enforcement
abuses of national security letters," Christian said. "We want you to
take special note of the uses and abuses of NSLs in libraries and
bookstores, and other places where higher First Amendment standards
should be considered."
Chaired by Senator Russ Feingold (D.-Wis.), the hearings were held
following the report by the Inspector General of the Justice Department
that the FBI had improperly used national security letters.
In a statement, AAP president Pat Schroeder said: "Thanks to the
personal and professional courage of four Connecticut librarians,
Congress and the American people now understand what it's like to live
under an NSL gag order--to literally have your right to free speech
taken away. Finally, George Christian has been able to tell Congress
their story. Now it's time for the 110th Congress to do what the 109th
failed to do: restore reader privacy protections and civil liberties
safeguards to the Patriot Act."
For his part, Oren Teicher, COO of the ABA, commented: "Booksellers everywhere join in celebrating the ungagging of George Christian and his brave colleagues at Library Connection who protected the privacy of their patrons reading records by challenging the NSL."