Four ‘John Doe’ Librarians Break Silence
JOHNDOE
New London Day
Margaret Stevenson
Boston University Washington News Service
September 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27—Four Connecticut librarians previously known as “John Doe” were honored Thursday for taking a stand to protect the First Amendment.
“We are librarians,” said Peter Chase, president of the Library Connection, a non-profit consortium of 27 Hartford region libraries, and one of the librarians involved. “We believe deeply in intellectual freedom.”.
All four, who make up the executive board of the Library Connection, successfully challenged the FBI after it was authorized to access patron information without a court order in July of 2005.
The librarians, honored during Banned Books Week at the National Press Club, were Chase, Barbara Bailey, George Christian, and Janet Nocek.
“It’s our obligation to protect patron privacy and to protect the freedoms we hold dearly,” said Christian, the executive director of the Library Connection .
The librarians said the FBI, using a tool known as a National Security Letter, requested a record of a particular time of internet use. They refused to give up the information.
“We believe that people should be able to go to their library and read from a wide variety of views, and make up their own mind,” said Chase.
Under the 2001 Patriot Act, anyone who receives a National Security Letter is obliged to disclose the requested information and is barred from disclosing its contents.
“They couldn’t even talk to their families and their bosses,” said Peter Ciparelli, director of the New London Library.
“When we received it, we were aware that a Federal District Court in New York had already declared that these letters violated the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution and because of those reasons we refused to comply with it,” Chase said.
They contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which decided to represent them for no cost in a law suit against the U.S. attorney general.
Christian said they were opposing a police force that operated in secret and never allowed those involved to tell anyone.
“It’s so counter to our free and open society—it had to be resisted,” said Christian.
Chase said they were ordered not to speak about the lawsuit, but that the names of the four were released to the public because court documents were not blacked out where they were supposed to have been.
Chase described the ordeal, saying that he could not even tell his son about the lawsuit and what was going on at the time.
“We couldn’t tell the ones we loved most – if you tell them, you put them in danger,” Chase said.
During the case, the Patriot Act was revised and while ACLU officials say that some of their concerns have been addressed, they say that it makes gag orders more oppressive.
“About six weeks after the Patriot Act was signed into law, the government dropped our gag order and eventually withdrew the National Security Letter,” Chase said.
Chase said there is another “John Doe” in New York who is seeking to overturn the revision of the Patriot Act.
The March 2006 revision of the law was spurred by two cases, one involving an Internet provider and the case of the four librarians.
“They did something wonderful—someone had to take a stand on it,” said Ciparelli, the director of the New London Library.
According to Christian, of the 150,000 National Security Letter recipients, these four librarians are the only National Security Letter recipients with the freedom to speak out about it.
Chase said they never released any of the information the government asked for.
“I’m pleased with what they did,” said Ciparelli. “As far as protecting the rights of patrons, I suppose they are heroes.”
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