ALA Urges Support for the SAFE Act
Little noticed bipartisan bill would add checks and balances to the Patriot Act
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 11/1/2004
With so much attention being focused on the Patriot Act, you may have missed the little noticed Security and Freedom Ensured Act (SAFE), a bipartisan bill authored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Larry Craig (R-ID) that is designed to impose some limits on the antiterrorism law without hampering efforts to investigate suspected terrorists. That's why the American Library Association and library supporters are urging librarians to contact their senators to vote for the bill.
"I believe it is possible to combat terrorism and preserve our individual freedoms at the same time," says Durbin who was joined by Senators Russell Feingold (D-WI) and John Sununu (R-NH) in mid-October to call for the adoption of the bill. "The Patriot Act crossed the line on several key areas of civil liberties, and this legislation restores the necessary checks and balances to the system."
One of the most disturbing parts of the Patriot Act is Section 215, which permits law enforcement agencies to search library and bookstore records without probable cause or reasonable grounds that the person under investigation is engaged in criminal activity. Libraries investigated under Section 215 are prohibited from disclosing the fact to anyone else, and suspects are never notified that their privacy was compromised. Durbin and Craig say portions of the Patriot Act, which was approved by Congress in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, raise civil liberties concerns. In fact, three states and more than 180 cities and counties nationwide have passed resolutions expressing concern over the law.
"The SAFE Act clarifies and amends in a minor way the Patriot Act's most troubling provisions," said Craig during a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill. Without changing the Patriot Act in any way, the new bill "would make sure that any future administration doesn't go beyond the intent of Congress or our Constitution in violating people's civil rights," says Craig's spokesman, Mike Tracy. Under the SAFE Act, the Federal Bureau of Investigation would still have wide-ranging authority to combat terrorism, but there would be reasonable limits on its seizure of library records, "sneak and peak" warrants, and roving wiretaps, Tracy adds.
Will the bill succeed? Although it has 19 sponsors, including Republican senators such as Mike Crapo of Idaho, Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, it will be an uphill battle, especially since it doesn't have the support of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch. Congress is not expected to take up the matter until its next session in January.
