[Libs-Or] INFORMATION and FUTURE ACTION: U.S. House poised to pass real reforms to USA PATRIOT Act

[Diedre Conkling]

http://www.districtdispatch.org/2015/05/u-s-house-poised-to-pass-real-reforms-to-usa-patriot-act/

U.S. House poised to pass real reforms to USA PATRIOT Act

Posted by: Adam Eisgrau
<http://www.districtdispatch.org/author/adameisgrau/> May 13, 2015 in Privacy
& Surveillance
<http://www.districtdispatch.org/category/privacy-surveillance/>
Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act became, and remains, known as the
“library provision” of that law because of intense and ongoing librarian
opposition to the sweeping power it grants the government to compel
libraries, without a probable cause-based search warrant, to divulge
personal patron reading and internet usage records, and to the “gag orders”
associated with Section 215 and “National Security Letters” (NSLs) that
impede judicial and public oversight of such activity.

Tonight [5/13/15], the House of Representatives will vote on the USA
FREEDOM Act of 2015, H.R. 2048
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2048?q=%7b%22search%22%3A%5b%22USA+FREEDOM%22%5d%7d>
to finally ban the “bulk collection” of Americans’ personal communications
records (library, telephone and otherwise) under Section 215. Critically,
it also would preclude the use of other surveillance laws (related to “PEN
registers”) and NSLs to get around that prohibition and would bring the
“gag order” provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act into compliance with the
First Amendment by permitting them to be meaningfully challenged in court.

The bill, not incidentally, also permits phone and internet companies to
publish information (in a sufficiently specific form to be useful) about
the number of requests they receive from the government to produce personal
subscriber information.  It also, for the first time, would create
opportunities for specially cleared civil liberties advocates to appear
before the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court that
authorizes surveillance activities.  The bill also makes important “first
step” reforms to privacy-hostile provisions, including Section 702, of the
FISA Amendments Act.

ALA and its many public and private sector coalition partners strongly
support passage of H.R. 2048.  That message was underscored by the more
than 400 librarian lobbyists who took to Capitol Hill on May 5, during the
American Library Association’s (ALA) National Library Legislative Day
<http://www.districtdispatch.org/2015/05/hundreds-to-gather-in-d-c-for-41st-annual-national-library-legislative-day/>.
They carried with them a stirring and emphatic OpEd urging real reform
entitled “Long Lines for Freedom
<http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/240956-long-lines-for-freedom>” by ALA
President Courtney Young, which was published that morning in The Hill, a
Congress-centric newspaper widely read by Members of Congress, their staffs
and the national press.

While House passage of the USA FREEDOM Act is widely expected, its fate in
the Senate is uncertain at best. Stay tuned for more on how you can help!
<http://cqrcengage.com/ala/home>



http://www.districtdispatch.org/2015/05/u-s-house-poised-to-pass-real-reforms-to-usa-patriot-act/

-- 
*Diedre Conkling*




*Lincoln County Library DistrictP.O. Box 2027Newport, OR 97365Phone & Fax:
541-265-3066Work email**: **diedre at lincolncolibrarydist.org*
<diedre at lincolncolibrarydist.org>
*Home email: **diedre08 at gmail.com* <diedre08 at gmail.com>

 “If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change
your attitude.”―Maya Angelou
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