SIVACRACY.NET

MEET JOHN DOE

The highlight of the ALA Annual Conference (for me) had to be meeting and shaking hands with the four "John Does" involved in the now infamous Doe v. Gonzales. Since there's more and better information available here, here, and many other places, I'll try to refrain from attempting to provide a lot of background on this case. So, here it is in a nutshell as best as this non-attorney can explain it -

In July 2005, four board members of the Connecticut library consortium, Library Connection, were served with a National Security Letter requesting "Internet records" on patrons at one of their member libraries. (For fear of violating patron privacy, the board members will not reveal any more information regarding the type of information requested.) These four--known collectively as "John Doe" and individually as Peter Chase, Janet Nocek, George Christian, and Barbara Bailey--refused to comply and then entered every librarian's (and what should be every citizen's) worst nightmare. Although never forced to turn over the records, the Department of Justice issued a gag order, preventing them from speaking out on any issue remotely related to the PATRIOT Act, forcing the plaintiffs to restrict their activities for fear of accidentally revealing themselves as "Doe," prohibiting them from speaking to/sitting with/making eye contact with their attorneys or eachother in public, and preventing them from telling their loved ones, employers, coworkers, colleagues, or any other human being on the planet that they were served with the NSL. They were threatened and harrassed non-stop for nearly a year until the gag order was partially lifted in late May (due to DOJ's own incompetence) and, as some of us learned during yesterday's early morning panel discussion, fully lifted last Friday. And all this occured while DOJ was lying its collective ass off to members of Congress and to the American public regarding the use (or lack of use) of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act against libraries. Here is a little gem from as recently as December 14, 2005 -

"...During this important debate, Republicans and Democrats have discovered that concerns raised about the act's impact on civil liberties, while sincere, were unfounded. There have been no verified civil liberties abuses in the four years of the act's existence. ..." - US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Supporters of the Act like to point out that the recent changes put in place mechanisms for challenging a 215 request for information and any subsequent gag order; however, these changes have also made appeals even more difficult, according to the plaintiffs. By the way, in case anyone was wondering, approximately 30,000 NSLs have been served since the PATRIOT Act was enacted (according to The Washington Post). Who these recipients are and what sort of information has been requested (and possibly provided) may never be known.

So, where does the original NSL request made to the Connecticut librarians stand? It's my understanding that although the gag order has been fully lifted, the request is still there. And the librarians are standing firm, refusing to comply.