ALA, ARL Want Congress To Require Warrants for Searches in Libraries

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 10/29/2007

The American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) are seeking language that would ensure that law enforcement requests for library patron records or the surveillance of library users through library networks go through judicial review. In a position statement regarding the pending RESTORE Act and other proposals to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), ALA and ARL seek to ensure that libraries are not declared "electronic communication services" and thus are not subject to National Security Letters (NSLs), which allow the FBI to gather information without going before a judge.
 
"Libraries do not seek to thwart national security efforts nor to be safe havens for those engaging in illegal activities," reads the ALA/ARL statement. "However, because the mission of libraries is so closely bound to our Nation's first amendment freedoms, there should be judicial review of law enforcement demands for library records or communications." 

While the 2005 reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act defines "electronic communication service" as "any service which provides to users thereof the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications," leading Senators voting for the reauthorization stated they meant to exempt libraries. The FBI, however, has disagreed, reading the statute literally.

The RESTORE Act, which passed the House Judiciary Committee 20-14, would allow the government to compel "communications providers" to provide assistance in the warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. persons abroad. That could affect libraries in the United States, if they provide access to such non-U.S. users abroad, such as via distance learning. While ALA/ARL officials concede that libraries "rely on a global network of communications facilities and services," they note, "this should not make libraries into communications service providers as proposed under the FISA modernization efforts today."