Can Patriot Act Be Modified? Gonzalez Says Maybe

Library Journal | April 9 2005

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee April 5, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales indicated that the administration was willing to consider minor modifications to the USA PATRIOT Act, including to Section 215, which makes it much easier for law enforcement agencies to search business records, including those at libraries and bookstores. Section 215 has been the target of an increasingly bipartisan group of critics, including the recently formed Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances. Senators Larry Craig (R-ID) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) on April 5 announced plans to reintroduce Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act to scale back the Patriot Act.

Gonzalez also flatly declared that “Section 215 has not been used in connection with library records,” which seemingly contradicts former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s account, in Newsweek’s January 24 issue, that law enforcement agents had used the Patriot Act to gain information on Internet usage at a New York City library. However, that doesn’t mean the Federal Bureau of Investigation has avoided libraries. FBI Director Robert Mueller testified that “we've had several occasions where in the course of terrorism investigations, we have had to obtain library records,” but apparently Section 215 wasn’t needed. While Gonzalez did not announce support for changes sought in the SAFE Act, he said the administration “would support a change in the law to allow specific challenges to a Section 215 order and would support changes in law that would allow someone to talk to an attorney in connection with the preparation of that order.”