Librarians Stand Again Against FBI Overreach

[Commentary] We are the four librarians who fought a government gag order a decade ago when FBI agents demanded library records under the Patriot Act and told us, under penalty of criminal prosecution, that we couldn't talk about it. We members of what the media called "the Connecticut Four" haven't reunited in the civil liberties cause. Until now.

Attempts are being made in the US Senate to expand the amount and kinds of information that the government may compel libraries and others to divulge. This could once again infringe on the civil liberties of library patrons and silence librarians as we were silenced a dozen years ago. This past summer, the Senate barely defeated legislation that would have expanded the FBI's authority to collect information by using National Security Letters that could gag librarians and others without a court order. The legislation was attached as an amendment to a Justice Department spending bill. The senators could try again any time — including tacking the legislation onto the government funding bill that has to pass this week to avoid a shutdown.

[Peter Chase is retired from the Plainville (CT) Public Library. Barbara Bailey is director of the Welles-Turner Memorial Library in Glastonbury (CT). Jan Nocek is director of the Portland (CT) Public Library. George Christian is executive director of the Library Connection, a nonprofit cooperative of 30 libraries.]