Librarians’ life under FBI gag order
Posted by Jacque on June 28th, 2007
When the FBI came calling with a National Security Letter (NSL) — which doesn’t require a judge’s approval –to order the release of patron computer records, four librarians declined to comply. They were convinced that the feds had no right to intrude on anyone’s privacy without a court order.
Wired Blog Network notes that life got really interesting for them after that. Under a gag order, they weren’t allowed to reveal that they had received an NSL or even to talk to each other by phone or email.
The ACLU took on the case and it went to court in Bridgeport, Conn. The librarians were not allowed to attend their own hearing, only to watch it on closed circuit TV from a locked courtroom in Hartford, 60 miles away. “Our presence in the courtroom was declared a threat to national security,” one of the librarians said.
This same librarian was identified publically by the FBI despite the fact that he was legally required to keep his identity secret. Then reporters started calling. One day, the AP called the librarian’s house, got his son on the phone and told him his father was being investigated by the FBI. Still under the gag order, the librarian was unable to explain to either his family or co-workers what was was going on. The ACLU even advised him to move to a safehouse.
Finally, the Bridgeport court ruled that the librarians’ constitutional rights had been violated and the government appealed the decision to U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Around the same time, “the Congressional spin machine kicked into overdrive.” Once President Bush reauthorized the Patriot Act, the FBI lifted the librarians’ gag order. “By withdrawing the gag order before the court had made a decision, they withdrew the case from scrutiny,” the librarian said. This eliminated the possibility that the NSL provisions would be struck down.
When the Patriot Act was reauthorized, a five year prison term for violating the gag order was added to it, and today there are likely hundreds, if not thousands, of similar stories that cannot be told.
