NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS CASES > Overview > Internet Archive > Library Records > Internet Records > FOIA BLOG HuffingtonPost: Judge Gags Patriot Act Provision FROM THE 2006 MEMBERSHIP CONFERENCE Ambassador Joe Wilson, "Faces of Surveillance" Clients Discuss Illegal Spying LEARN MORE > FBI Withdraws Unconstitutional National Security Letter After ACLU And EFF Challenge > ACLU Applauds Senate Scrutiny of Overbroad NSL Authority > Government's Unchecked Power to Censor Speech > The Patriot Act > Government Spyfiles

The feature below shows the danger of giving the government unchecked power to censor speech in the name of national security. The FBI used a National Security Letter (NSL) under the Patriot Act to gag Connecticut librarians from identifying themselves as NSL recipients or disclosing other innocuous details about the case they brought to challenge the NSL.

By clicking on the documents below, you will see the kinds of "dangerous" information the government was able to keep secret by claiming its release would harm national security. The government insisted on redacting this information even after the media correctly reported on Library Connection's identity as the NSL recipient, and after the government itself had failed to redact Library Connection's identity in legal papers. For example, the government redacted direct quotes from Supreme Court concerning the government's inability to censor information that was already public. The government redacted entire news articles that correctly identified Library Connection as the NSL recipient. The government even insisted on blacking out a quote to a state statute about the confidentiality of library records.