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ALA Joins Patriot Act Challenge in Supreme CourtThe American Civil Liberties Union filed an emergency appeal October 3 before the U.S. Supreme Court for an order to allow a Connecticut library to speak out on potential abuses of portions of the USA Patriot Act. The American Library Association, Freedom to Read Foundation, Association of American Publishers, and American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression filed an amicus brief the same day supporting the ACLU’s request.The ACLU filed the original suit, Doe v. Gonzales, in federal district court in August to challenge Section 505 of the Patriot Act and obtain release from the gag provision so its unnamed client could identify itself as the recipient of a national security letter and participate in the debate over Congress’s reauthorization of the legislation. U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall removed the gag order related to the case September 9, but granted the Department of Justice time to appeal. On September 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan granted a full stay of Hall’s decision, which prompted the ACLU’s appeal to the Supreme Court. The amicus brief emphasized that the New York Times had already identified the plaintiff organization in a September 21 article as Library Connection, a nonprofit cooperative of 26 public and academic libraries with a central office in Windsor, Connecticut. “The speculation highlights the absurdity of the permanent gag order and puts an ALA member in an untenable bind,” the brief stated. “With this report in the public domain, the gag order both serves an even less important interest and causes even greater First Amendment harm that this court must remedy.” The ACLU filed the appeal with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who oversees cases from the Second Circuit, the Associated Press reported October 4. Ginsburg could either rule alone or in consultation with the other justices. Posted October 4, 2005. |
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