Attendees at our November General Meeting were shocked to learn the story of how some facets of the PATRIOT Act have been used to by the government to take away an individual’s rights without the normal protections provided by the Constitution. As the evening unfolded and the details of the story were revealed it seemed right out of an episode of “Twilight Zone”.

What do you do when you are on the Board of Directors of an organization (Library Connection, Incorporated) that supplies IT services to a number of Connecticut libraries and in July of 2005 the FBI, using provisions of the Patriot Act, requests information on the activities of certain users accessing the Internet from one of their supported computers? This request asked for “all subscriber information, billing information and access logs of any person” that used a specific computer at a particular library branch. It was done using a provision of the PATRIOT Act that allows the FBI to send out a National Security Letter (NSL). Also, add to the mix that the PATRIOT Act also makes it illegal for any of you to disclose that a request was made (a gag order). This means you have to respond and cannot tell anyone about it.

This group refused the request based on the fact that the FBI had not used the court system to obtain an order but used only the provisions of the Patriot Act, which had no oversight. Had it been a court order they stated they would have complied.

Even though the gag order was in force, they sought legal counsel to overturn the FBI’s request and the gag order. The ACLU took their case and thus began a year long cloak and dagger story which saw them not being able to speak out on their concerns or even let their families and coworkers know what was going on. To prevent going afoul of the gag order each of the people involved in the court papers were listed as “John Doe”.

From the beginning the participants could not speak publicly or privately and had to lie about where they were going to their friends and families when they went to see their lawyers or attend court hearings. And even though they went to the hearings they could not be present in the courtroom so any of the other attendees would know who they were.

Ultimately, after almost a year, in May 2006, the government finally gave up its legal battle to maintain the gag order and their lawsuit was remanded back to the lower courts for a decision on the merits. On June 26, 2006, the ACLU announced that, after dropping its defense of the gag provision accompanying the information request (NSL), the FBI abandoned the lawsuit entirely.

Present at our meeting were two of the “John Does”. Barbara Bailey, current Secretary of Library Connection (formerly President and Executive Board Member) and Peter Chase, the current President of Library Connection.

Also present was Alice Knapp, the immediate past president of the Connecticut Library Association and the person who spoke on behalf of the “John Does” while the gag order was imposed.

Why was this an appropriate topic for our meeting? Because it has to do with people’s rights, privacy and the free use of computers on the Internet.

We would like to thank this group of brave souls for standing up for the rights of individuals to go to their local library and read and research what they want without fear that their habits will be disclosed without proper constitutional requirements being met.

If you were not there you missed an excellent and informative presentation.