ABA President Responds to Times Essay on Censorship

ABA President Mitchell Kaplan

The Sunday, January 9, edition of the New York Times Book Review included a letter from ABA President Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida, who was responding to an essay by Rachel Donadio, "Is There Censorship?," published in the December 19 issue of the Book Review. In her essay, Donadio questioned whether the book community's concerns over censorship are more about perception than reality. In his letter, Kaplan defended booksellers' concerns over potential First Amendment violations that could occur under the USA Patriot Act.

In her essay, Donadio wrote: "Today, most defenders of the written word are focusing their energies on opposing certain sections of the USA Patriot Act, chief among them Section 215…. Larry Siems, the director of international programs at the PEN American Center, strikes an oft-heard chorus when he denounces 'the growing use of government surveillance and government intrusion into your creative space.' This, in turn, feeds a concern 'that the government is able to see more deeply into our intellectual lives,' Siems says.

"Where there is smoke, there may very well be fire, but there may also be mirrors. It's often hard to draw the line between perception and practice, between how certain government regulations are viewed and how they're actually being enforced. The very mention of the Patriot Act is enough to drive many publishers, writers, librarians, bookstore owners, readers, and concerned citizens into a near-paranoid frenzy at the idea that the government is intruding into their personal business, although few can cite specific instances in which that is the case."

In his January 9 letter, Kaplan countered Donadio's contention that booksellers' and their patrons' concerns over the Patriot Act are based mostly on perception, and said that this belief misses the point:

"Donadio suggests that booksellers, librarians, and others are in a 'near-paranoid frenzy' over the fact that the USA Patriot Act gives the F.B.I. potentially unlimited access to our records, including the titles of the books purchased or borrowed by our customers.

"While we may not be in a frenzy, we are certainly alarmed. Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the F.B.I. can apply to a secret court for an order to obtain the records of anyone whose name may come up in a national security investigation, even if the person is not suspected of engaging in any crime. We have helped launch the Campaign for Reader Privacy to restore the safeguards for customer privacy and have gathered more than 200,000 names on petitions circulated in bookstores and libraries and on our Web site.

"But Donadio misses the point when she says that we are unable to cite specific abuses of this vast new power. Searches under Section 215 are secret. The Justice Department refuses to say whether it is searching bookstore and library records, and the Patriot Act forbids booksellers and librarians to reveal the fact that a search has occurred.

"We do know that law enforcement officials have made a growing number of attempts to obtain bookstore records in non-Patriot Act cases. Kenneth Starr got the ball rolling in 1998 when he subpoenaed Monica Lewinsky's book purchase records from two Washington bookstores. The Denver police issued a search warrant to the Tattered Cover Book Store for the titles of books purchased by a drug suspect. Cleveland authorities won the prize for the most egregious fishing expedition by demanding that Amazon.com turn over a list of everyone in northeastern Ohio who had purchased two CDs. If we're concerned, it is because our ability to protect our customers' privacy is under attack." --David Grogan