Reviewing The Patriot Act. Congress enacted the USA Patriot Act after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Act significantly expanded the federal government’s surveillance and intelligence gathering capabilities. One of the new tools at the Government’s disposal is a National Security Letter (NSL). An NSL is an administrative subpoena that allows the FBI to demand personal records from organizations without prior court approval and prohibits disclosure by the recipient. In 2006, in the town of Windsor, CT, librarians found themselves on the receiving end of an NSL for patrons’ records. Rather than meekly submitting to the gag order, they sued the Government. Libraries across the country began to engage in acts of civil disobedience. Notices were posted warning patrons that their search histories, passwords, and emails could be subject to FBI surveillance, and documents with personal identifying information were shredded. Signs appeared daily on library doors telling patrons which organizations had visited the library.
Reviewing The Patriot Act. The American Library Association (ALA) publicly opposed parts of the Act. Believing that they violated the library community’s long-standing commitment to privacy and freedom of access to information, it adopted a resolution calling certain sections of the Act “a present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy rights of library users.” The ALA urged “all libraries to adopt and implement patron privacy and record retention policies that affirm that ‘the collection of personally identifiable information should only be a matter of routine or policy when necessary for the fulfillment of the mission of the library.” State and local libraries followed suit, enacting their own resolutions or endorsing the ALAs. Read American Library Association (ALA) resolution. Consider and discuss how moral autonomy in public organizations might apply. What would you have done in the librarians’ shoes? Signs appeared daily on library doors telling patrons which organizations had visited the library. Use APA referencing style.