Library Lawsuit

In August of 2005, four Connecticut librarians, all part of the Library Connection in Windsor, Connecticut, joined together with the American Civil Liberties Union to file a lawsuit against US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller regarding the Patriot Act.

The suite was filed after several libraries received confidential demands, called national security letters, from the FBI requesting patron records to be used in a secret counterterrorism cases. For example, the FBI requested that Bridgeport’s main library hand over typewriter ribbons. Unbeknown to the library at that time, the ribbons were used to investigate a woman, who was later charged with sending threatening letters to the justices of the Supreme Court (Cowan, 2005).

Perhaps more chilling than the demands themselves is the fact that after receiving the demand, the librarians were ordered to not talk to anyone regarding them.

The lawsuit was filed in defense of both patron records and free speech. The lawsuit claims that orders to produce library records are unconstitutional and the gag order preventing discussion of the issue is an unlawful restraint on free speech.

The libraries won their court fight in May, 2006.

Despite this victory, many librarians continue to show concerns that the provisions of the Patriot Act may deter people from using their facilities (Cowan, 2006). “The fact that the government can and is eavesdropping on patrons in libraries has a chilling effect, because they really don’t know if Big Brother is looking over their shoulder,” said George Christain, library connection’s executive director.

While this library lawsuit has received a lot of media attention, it is not only instance in which national security letters have been issued. National security letters have become more popular since September 11 because they do not require judicial review. In fact, estimates predict that 30,000 national security letters will be issued this year (Cowan, 2006).