Booksellers Urged to Call for Bookstore Protections in Patriot Act Bill

[1]With the U.S. Justice Department expressing support [2] for Senate legislation that would extend three key provisions of the Patriot Act slated to expire at the end of the year, now is the time for supporters of the Campaign for Reader Privacy [1] to call on their senators to ensure that reader privacy protections included in the act are extended to bookstores.

Under the Senate version of the Patriot Act reauthorization bill, a Section 215 order could be used to obtain "library records or patron lists" only when those records pertain directly to someone suspected of terrorism or espionage. However, this added protection would not apply to the records of bookstore customers. They could still be searched even when the customer is not suspected of criminal conduct.

The American Booksellers Association and its partners in the Campaign for Reader Privacy are encouraging supporters to contact their senators to urge that the heightened protection afforded library records in the Senate Patriot Act reauthorization bill be extended to bookstore sales records.

Senate contact information is available here [3]. The most effective means of contacting senate and congressional leaders is by letter faxed on store letterhead or a telephone call to a Washington or district office.

Booksellers who write to their senators are asked to send a copy of their correspondence to Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression [4], via e-mail [5] or to ABFFE, 275 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1504, New York, NY 10001.