House Stands Up For Freedom To Read
A sign that the spirit of liberty isn't yet dead in Congress: the House of Representatives, including 38 Republicans defying the President, voted to revoke a section of the USA PATRIOT ACT that authorized warrant-free searches of citizens' library and bookstore records.
Carl Hulse, New York TImes:"Citing privacy issue, House bars access to library files"
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The "Freedom To Read" effort was led by the House's sole independent, Rep. Bernie Sanders. And co-sponsored by former Libertarian presidential candidate, Ron Paul. And backed by thousands of pissed-off librarians.
posted by Mike Laursen @ 8:41 AM
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I always though that the library searches provision in the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act was a weird one. I mean, is searching library records w/o court order really an important tool for fighting terror? No. This was a trial balloon for the subpoena-less collection, archival, and analysis of all manners of corporate data -- credit card, postal/shipping, ISP, mail-order, etc. That's what they were after, in the long view.
AnCow
They miscalculating in choosing librarians as their test group. The librarians fought back.
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