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ACLU Wins Challenge to Patriot Act NSL Provision
May 10, 2008

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May 9, 2008

ACLU Wins Challenge to Patriot Act NSL Provision

Internet Archive librarian, Brewster Kahle, is finally allowed to speak out about the FBI's unconstitutional NSL. Watch the video.

The ACLU won a hard-fought victory in another legal challenge to the national security letter (NSL) provision of the Patriot Act. As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI this week withdrew an unconstitutional national security letter issued to the Internet Archive and agreed to unseal the case, finally allowing the Archive's founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand.

The NSL, issued in November of 2007, asked for personal information about one of the Archive's users, including the individual's name, address, and any electronic communication transactional records pertaining to the user. Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, decided to fight the NSL because it exceeded the FBI's limited authority to issue such demands to libraries. The lawsuit is the first known challenge to an NSL served on a library since Congress amended the national security letter provision in 2006 to limit the FBI's power to demand records from libraries.

The NSL included a gag order, prohibiting Kahle from discussing the letter and the legal issues it presented with anyone else except his attorneys, who were also gagged. The gag also prevented the ACLU from discussing the NSL with members of Congress, even though an ACLU lawyer who represents the Archive recently testified at a congressional hearing about the FBI's misuse of NSLs.

"The free flow of information is at the heart of every library's work,” said Kahle. “That's why Congress passed a law limiting the FBI's power to issue NSLs to America's libraries. While it's never easy standing up to the government - particularly when I was barred from discussing it with anyone - I knew I had to challenge something that was clearly wrong. "

NSLs are secretly issued by the government to obtain access to personal customer records from Internet Service Providers, financial institutions, and credit reporting agencies. In almost all cases, recipients of the NSLs are forbidden, or "gagged," from disclosing that they have received the letters. The ACLU has challenged this Patriot Act statute in federal court in two other cases where the judges found the gags unconstitutional: one involving an Internet Service Provider; the second, a group of librarians.

Since the Patriot Act was passed in 2001, relaxing restrictions on the FBI's use of the power, the number of NSLs issued has seen an astronomical increase, to nearly 200,000 between 2003 and 2006.

>> Read more about the case.

>> Learn more about the ACLU's work on NSLs.
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Posted: Saturday May 10, 2008, 8:24 am
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