july04c.indd


W  a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e  Bernadette Murphy 

Ask Senators to protest attaching the 
Sensenbrenner-Goss bill 
We are requesting that you contact your 
Senators, especially those on the Senate Se­
lect Committee on Intelligence, to oppose 
a proposed move to attach HR 3179 to the 
FY 2005 Intelligence Authorization bill (S 
2386). 

According to a report published on May 
21, House and Senate GOP aides say that 
Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, 
Jr. (R­WI) and Intelligence Chairman Porter 
J. Goss (R­FL) are eyeing S 2386 as a vehicle 
for a proposal (HR 3179) that would make it 
a crime to disclose requests for information 
in national security letters, which government 
officials can use to solicit customer records 
and other information from libraries, Inter­
net service providers, and other businesses. 
It would also allow the FBI to get a judge 
to enforce a national security letter, even 
though no judge is involved in the issuance 
of the letter. 

The Sensenbrenner­Goss bill would make 
any knowing disclosure a misdemeanor, pun­
ishable by up to a year in prison. Anyone who 
revealed a national security letter’s request 
with the intention of obstructing an investiga­
tion could face five years in prison. 

Recipients of national security letters 
generally are barred from revealing that they 
received them, though administration offi cials 
have said recipients can confer with lawyers. 
Under current law, there is no penalty for 
violating the anti­disclosure rule, nor does 
the government have means to enforce its 
requests. 

At a hearing on the bill last week, Thomas 
J. Harrington, deputy assistant director of the 
FBI’s counter­terrorism division, revealed 
that, in at least one instance, the government 
has been unable to force an e­mail provider 
to comply with a request in a national secu­
rity letter. 

Bernadette Murphy is communications specialist at ALA’s 

Washington Offi ce, e-mail: bmurphy@alawash.org 

ALA does not believe that the government 
needs to further strengthen the already ex­
traordinary authority it has been given under 
the PATRIOT Act and its progeny to acquire 
confidential records. An ordinary search 
warrant or grand jury subpoena can be used 
in the investigation of any crime, including 
alleged terrorism. 

Adding judicial enforcement and criminal 
sanctions to an administrative process, which 
itself is not subject to judicial approval in 
the first instance or to legal challenge by the 
recipient, is inconsistent with our longstand­
ing values of justice and basic fairness. The 
chilling effect of criminal sanctions applied 
to speech cannot be overstated. 

Action needed: Please contact your Sena­
tors and ask that they oppose a proposed 
move to attach HR 3179 to the FY 2005 Intel­
ligence Authorization bill (S 2386). 

To contact members of Congress: Use 
ALA’s Washington Office Legislative Ac­
tion Center at capwiz.com/ala/home/ to 
identify and fax or e­mail your members of 
Congress. 

You can also call your member of Con­
gress directly using the U.S. Capitol switch­
board at (202) 225­3121. 

(“Civic engagement...” continued from page 
383) 
Kranich (ed.), Libraries and Democracy: The 
Cornerstones of Liberty (Chicago, IL: American 
Library Association, 2001). 

6. Julie Pratt, “Capturing Public Think­
ing: Authentic Reporting on Public Forums” 
(Charleston WV: West Virginia Center for 
Civic Life, n.d.): 3. www.nifi .org/CapturPub­
Think.pdf. 

7. More information about the Kettering 
Foundation is available at www.kettering. 
org. 

8. For a complete listing of available 
discussion guides as well as recent network 
news, events and other information, see the 
NIF Web site at www.nifi .org/. 

(continued on page 393) 

388 / C&RL NewsJuly/August 2004 

www.nifi
www.kettering
www.nifi
mailto:bmurphy@alawash.org