“John Doe” Case Dropped

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 8/15/2006

During the American Library Association annual conference, the four “John Doe's” of the Library Connection (Windsor, CT) were able to announce that the case was over. Library Connection VP Peter Chase cited the publicity following the lifting of a gag order: “Clearly, things were not going for the FBI the way they hoped. We made it clear we were going back to court to fight.”

The National Security Letter (NSL) shows that the FBI was seeking all records associated with a particular computer in Hartford County, from which a threat was apparently issued. The FBI told the New York Times that “conducting that investigation was less efficient” because of the John Doe case, but “because the threat ultimately was without merit, that delay came at no cost other than slowing the pace of the investigation.”

Identifying information about Chase, the chair of the Connecticut Library Association's (CLA) Intellectual Freedom Committee, was revealed inadvertently in the court record. He saluted Alice Knapp, CLA president, who substituted for him at several public forums but didn't betray his role. “Who would you rather trust with your national security secrets?” said Chase.

The John Doe librarians were unable to participate in the debate over the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act. Janet “Doe” Nocek, secretary of the Library Connection and director of the Portland Library, CT, said their action in resisting an NSL, which, unlike a subpoena, is not supervised by a court, “really was the right thing. I could have helped [Congress] understand the issue.”