A Stitch in Haste

Historically, terrorists and spies have used libraries to plan and carry out activities that threaten our national security. If terrorists or spies use libraries, we should not allow them to become safe havens for their terrorist or clandestine activities.
--Official PATRIOT Act Website

Almost from the time when the PATRIOT Act was just a bill working its way through Congress, civil libertarians warned about one particularly ominous aspect of the legislation: the "National Security Letter" --

Simply by issuing a National Security Letter, the FBI can force Internet service providers, universities and other institutions to turn over customer records.

Even more disturbing, anyone who receives an NSL is gagged — forever — from telling anyone that the FBI demanded records.

Civil libertarians warned from the beginning that NSLs could be used to obtain, without a warrant, the user records of libraries (i.e., who had been checking out which books or using the library's public Internet access, or the library's billing records).

Defenders of the PATRIOT Act insisted that this was a bizarre interpretation of the law's provisions, one that the federal government had no intention of actually using.

Ahem:

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit to block the FBI from obtaining records from an organization that holds information about library patrons.

The civil liberties advocacy group released a government-censored version of the lawsuit Thursday.
...
The ACLU said its client "possesses a wide array of sensitive information about library patrons, including information about the reading materials borrowed by library patrons and about Internet usage by library patrons."

The case is ACLU v. Gonzales, and is before Judge Janet Hall of the U.S. District Court in Connecticut.

I'm embarrassed to admit I'm not fully-versed in all the nuances of the PATRIOT Act or how it crosses swords with the First Amendment and Fourth Amendment. I'll leave that to others.

I just find it limitlessly ironic, depressing and scary that the federal government can simultaneously claim that citizens and libraries have no expectation of privacy in their records while also asserting that it does have an expectation of privacy in the content of public court pleadings, to the point where it can actually redact the litigants' names. It boggles the mind.

The terrorists want to destroy our way of life. Maybe they're succeeding.

More thoughts at Crime & Federalism.

POST SCRIPT #1: The ACLU has already won a previous lawsuit against the FBI over pretty much the same NSL fact pattern, including redacted pleadings. That case is currently on appeal before the Second Circuit.

POST SCRIPT #2: Did you know that the URL of the official government website for the PATRIOT Act is "http://www.lifeandliberty.gov"? Orwell would be proud. Maybe next they'll reassign the IRS website to "http://www.pursuitofhappiness.gov"...

UPDATE #1: The judge in the case has lifted the gag order, effectively striking down this provision of the PATRIOT Act. The judge stayed her own order until September 20, however, to give the government an opportunity to appeal.

UPDATE #2: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has temporarily reinstated the gag order pending the government's appeal to that court.

UPDATE #3: The Supreme Court, in the form of Justice Ginsburg, has denied a request for an emergency appeal. This is not surprising, is not equivalent to a denial of certiorari, and mererly means that the standard appellate process will proceed.