Patriot Act Reform Bill Introduced -- ABA Urges Support

On Tuesday, September 25, the sponsors of the Campaign for Reader Privacy (CRP) -- the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, and PEN American Center -- lauded the introduction in the U.S. Senate of the National Security Letter Reform Act of 2007, a bipartisan bill to safeguard citizens' privacy. The legislation, which would amend the Patriot Act to curb the FBI's misuse of National Security Letters (NSL) and establish an individualized standard of suspicion for Section 215 orders, was introduced by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI), John Sununu (R-NH), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ken Salazar (D-CO), and Chuck Hagel (R-NE).

ABA is urging booksellers to contact their senators to ask them to support the bill. "We are thankful to the bipartisan coalition for introducing this legislation, which is an important step toward ensuring the First Amendment rights of bookstore customers," said ABA COO Oren Teicher. "And it is crucial that we show them our support. As we have seen so many times in the past, booksellers can make a huge impact in Washington. The key is joining together and making our voices heard." (Contact information is available on the Senate website.)

National Security Letters are administrative subpoenas issued by FBI field agents with no judicial oversight that give the government virtually unlimited access to electronic communications transactions records, including those of Internet service providers and public libraries. Recipients of NSLs are bound to perpetual silence by a gag order.

Section 215 orders allow the FBI to seize any business records, including bookstore transaction records, merely by telling a secret FISA court that the records are "relevant" to an investigation.

The National Security Letter Reform Act of 2007 was crafted in response to a report by the Inspector General of the Department of Justice documenting widespread misuse of NSLs, as well as two federal court decisions striking down the NSL provisions of the Patriot Act as unconstitutional.

Passage of the USA Patriot Act gave the FBI virtually unchecked authority to issue administrative subpoenas without oversight, and the Inspector General's March 2007 report confirmed that the number of NSLs issued by the FBI has skyrocketed, with more than 140,000 requests for information served between 2003 and 2005. More than a thousand, and perhaps many thousands, of those requests potentially violated laws or agency rules. Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero ruled for the second time that the NSL's gag provision and lack of judicial review violated the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution and he found that changes to the Patriot Act approved by Congress last year failed to correct its fundamental flaws.

The NSL Reform Act would correct several of these flaws. Among other things, it would require the government to make an individualized determination that each record sought with an NSL relates to someone with a connection to terrorism or espionage, and it would place a time limit on the gag order (which could be extended by the courts, if necessary).

The Campaign for Reader Privacy was organized in 2004 to fight for changes in the Patriot Act to protect the confidentiality of reading records of law-abiding Americans. The Campaign has been pressing Congress to establish an individualized standard of suspicion and to make it easier for librarians and booksellers to challenge NSL and Section 215 orders in court and limit the length and scope of the accompanying gag orders.