Gag Order on “John Doe” Lifted

Victory for library group comes only after Patriot Act is renewed

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 5/1/2006

In a case that galvanized the library world, “John Doe,” a Connecticut library group that challenged a gag order regarding its receipt of a secret subpoena under the USA PATRIOT Act, will finally be allowed to speak: federal prosecutors dropped their appeal on April 12. While the New York Times headline stated, “Librarians Win as U.S. Relents on Secrecy Law,” the victory was hardly unalloyed. “While I am very relieved that the government has decided to end its appeal, and I’m very anxious to hear [the group’s] story, I am very disappointed the decision [wasn’t made] until after the USA PATRIOT Act [renewal] passed,” Connecticut Library Association president Alice Knapp told LJ.

Knapp pointed out that, thanks to a failure by government lawyers to hide all references to the library at issue, the Times and the Washington Post had already identified the recipient of the National Security Letter as the Library Connection, a Windsor, CT–based consortium. “We have all known who John Doe was since September,” Knapp said. “And they have now only decided it’s OK to tell [the] story? In essence, they suppressed John Doe’s First Amendment right to speak when this would have been relevant.” The Patriot Act was renewed in early March.

John Doe was expected to be allowed to speak within a few weeks, after court proceedings concluded. It was unclear whether the group would be able to discuss the case in detail. Knapp pointed out that libraries now have the capacity, under the revised Patriot Act, to challenge such National Security Letters, but they would have to wait a year, and the FBI would have discretion to dismiss the challenge for national security reasons. U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Connor told the Times that the decision regarding John Doe was based on the change in the Patriot Act.

A federal judge had ruled on September 9 in favor of John Doe but stayed the decision so the federal government could appeal (see News, LJ 10/1/05, p. 18). “John Doe” received the 2005 Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award, presented at the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting January 21 in San Antonio. Accepting was Judith Krug, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

“In Connecticut, we are so very proud of John Doe,” Knapp said. “We know there was a lot of sacrifice on John Doe’s part. People have not been able to talk about the case with their family, friends, or colleagues.”