Editor's Note: The USA Patriot Act -- the Uniting and Strengthening
America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism Act -- has generated intense debate since it was
enacted almost three years ago. This series examines the implications of
some of the more controversial sections of the act's 342 pages.
Of the USA Patriot Act's 158 sections, Section 215 has been the most
contentious. This is the portion that angered many of the nation's
librarians, resulting in resolutions against the Patriot Act nationally
by the American Library Association and locally by the Rhode Island
Library Association.
Librarians are sensitive to FBI requests for information about library
patrons because of the FBI's "Library Awareness Program" of the Cold War
years, when agents asked library directors to supply circulation records
of people with "Eastern European or Russian-sounding names."
But Section 215 does not apply to libraries only; it affects nearly
everyone and almost everything. Book dealers, newspapers, doctors,
landlords -- virtually anyone who keeps records must yield them on
demand.
This section is titled "Access to Records and Other Items Under the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."
Section 215 amends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by
introducing the phrase, "any tangible things." These three words make it
possible for the FBI to secretly demand anything, from anyone.
To use the powers granted in Section 215, a high-ranking FBI agent first
must go to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
There, the agent must tell a judge that the FBI needs information from
or about you to investigate "international terrorism, or clandestine
intelligence activities."
Section 215 says the judge then "shall" approve the FBI's application.
Just by certifying to the secret Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court
that your records or things are relevant to an investigation, agents can
demand them even though there is no open investigation of you. An FBI
memo cites an apartment key as the kind of "thing" that agents can
demand. Section 215 cites as examples, books, records, papers,
documents, and other items.
The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the government in federal
court in Michigan, alleging that the power granted to government agents
under Section 215 is so broad that it violates the First, Fourth and
Fifth Amendments of the Bill of Rights.
Although librarians are not specifically mentioned in the Patriot Act,
they recognized that it would allow the FBI to demand the records of
their patrons.
Section 215 also contains a gag order that prohibits those required to
provide records from telling the person whose records are requested.
Staff writer Gerald M. Carbone can be reached at
gcarbone [at] projo.com or (401) 277-7434.
Tomorrow: The Patriot Act makes it easier for government agents to conduct
surveillance.
ARTICLE TOOLS: 
