ABFFE Letter Sent to Booksellers to Urge Congressional Support of the Freedom to Read Protection Act

Dear Bookseller,

We need your help! Your member of Congress has not yet joined the ranks of the more than 100 Representatives who are co-sponsoring the Freedom to Read Protection Act, a bill that amends the USA Patriot Act, restoring confidence in the confidentiality of bookstore records.

You probably already know the problems created by Section 215 of the Patriot Act:

• that the FBI can obtain a court order for your records in a closed hearing, denying you the opportunity to raise First Amendment objections;
  
• that it does not need to show "probable cause" that the person whose records are sought is engaged in criminal activity and may, therefore, search the records of anyone who may have information relevant to a foreign intelligence investigation; and,
  
• that the subpoena contains a gag provision that forbids you to reveal even the fact that your records have been searched.
  

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the American Booksellers Association (ABA) believe that the Patriot Act poses a serious threat to First Amendment rights. If our customers fear that the government is monitoring their purchases, they will not feel free to buy books that might be considered "suspicious." It was for this reason that we supported Kramerbooks when it fought a subpoena for Monica Lewinksy's book purchase records in 1998 and the Tattered Cover when it challenged a search warrant for customer information in 2000.

Two months ago, I would have told you that there was only a slim chance of passing a bill fixing these problems. But then Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Freedom to Read Protection Act (H.R. 1157).

Support for H.R. 1157 is building rapidly. Last week, ABFFE, ABA, and the national bookselling chains issued a statement strongly endorsing the bill. We were joined by more than 30 associations representing booksellers, librarians, book publishers, and authors. To see the statement, click here.

In addition, there are already 101 co-sponsors in the House. For a list, click here.

However, your member of Congress is not a co-sponsor yet. If you have not done so already, we hope you will agree to write or call your representative soon to urge him or her to stand up for free speech. To have the greatest impact, write your representative a short note on your store letterhead and send it to the local district office. (Mail to Capitol Hill is still slow because of precautions against anthrax.) An e-mail or phone call can also be helpful, although they are not as powerful.

If you don't know who your representative is, you can find out quickly by using the search engine on the House Web site, http://www.house.gov. Once you have the name, it is easy to find his or her Web site and local address.

I am attaching some talking points about the Freedom to Read Protection Act to help you with your communication.

There are not many times in our lives when we can make a significant contribution to the defense of First Amendment rights. This is one of them. Please contact your Congress member today.

Thanks for your support!

Chris Finan
President
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression

P.S. If you are attending BookExpo this year, you will have a chance to hear Rep. Sanders talk about his bill during the ABFFE program, "Terrorism, Privacy and First Amendment Rights," Saturday at 2 p.m., in Room 309, South Building. Also, be sure to stop by the ABFFE booth and Silent Auction in the hallway between the South and West buildings.