The Patriot Act and Libraries

The Patriot Act is a broad-sweeping law that allows for a wide variety of surveillance and investigative activities. The act was passed soon after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and has been renewed many times by Congresses controlled by both political parties. It is an important tool in the fight against terrorism and has been critical to a number of successful law enforcement efforts since its passage.

The USA PATRIOT Act has helped prevent a number of terrorist attacks and crimes in the United States, including the murders of New York City residents by Al-Qaeda in 2001 and the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. The Act has also made anti-terrorism efforts more streamlined, efficient and effective.

One of the key benefits of the PATRIOT Act is that it reshaped law enforcement's investigative tools to reflect the modern era and the new threats to our national security. For example, the Act updated old weapons-legal authorities so that federal investigators can now access the latest technology to detect and track terrorists and their plots.

It also brought the FBI into the 21st century by providing new tools for investigators who handle terrorism cases, as well as for non-national security investigations. These tools include high-tech surveillance devices and electronic databases, which are faster and easier to use than traditional methods.

Additionally, the Act authorizes vital information sharing that enables criminal investigators and intelligence officers to connect the dots before terrorists strike. It breaks down bureaucratic barriers that separate police investigators from the intelligence agencies who have the most accurate information about potential threats. This has helped the Administration score a number of crucial victories in the War on Terror, and is essential to continued progress against the terrorist threat.

The PATRIOT Act has also enhanced the ability of law enforcement officials to investigate terrorism by expanding their powers to search and seize records from banks and other financial institutions and to conduct wiretaps on foreign telephones, even in the United States. These authorities are necessary to prevent the theft of our assets by foreign spies and to thwart a terrorist attack on American soil.

But the ALA believes that some of the Patriot Act's provisions violate constitutional rights and threaten library users' privacy rights. These concerns are outlined in ALA's Resolution on the USA PATRIOT Act and Libraries.

ALA is concerned that the Patriot Act has the potential to undermine the rights of library users, especially those who work in libraries or visit them frequently. This concern is why the ALA supports legislation to sunset Section 215 of the Act, which would allow law enforcement to search library records without a warrant if the information could lead to terrorism-related prosecutions or other civil justice issues.

ALA also supports renewing other key parts of the PATRIOT Act, which provide more than 30 additional significant civil liberties safeguards. However, if Congress does not pass these provisions, they will be lost at the end of 2005.