The USA Patriot Act continues to rear its ugly head, in these United States. The most recent assault on our rights come courtesy of the FBI, and its new-found love for libraries and bookstores. You see, the law allows the Feds to show up at a library and search patron records to see if anyone has been checking out anything questionable;ditto for bookstores.
The Feds don't have to notify anyone that they've been checked on. Librarians can't say anything about the searches. The judges and warrants for the searches are secret. So much for privacy and unreasonable searches. So much for innocent until proven guilty. So much for the right to face your accuser. So much for government in the light of day.
Happily, before Sept. 11, bookstores, notably the Tattered Cover in Denver, were sucesfully able to fight searches of their records. Tattered Cover successfully fought off a Denver Police attempt to search their records for an individual who bought books about the manufacture of methamphetamine. Unfortunately, the DPD was able to get the records anyway under the USA PAtriot Act, although the store owners are taking the case to the US Supreme Court.
I say that the DPD's success at getting the records is unfortunate, not because I want people to make methampetamine, but because it sets a precedent. It's nobody's business what books I buy, even if they may seem objectionable to others. Buying a book on biological or chemical warfare doesn't make me a terroristm, it means I want more information about threats to me and society so I can make informed choices as a citizen.
Particularly with the FBI's expanded powers for monitoring any group, for any reason, at any time, it would be easy to be an activist who was reading up on the threats our government claims we face, and be labelled a terrorist because the government wants to shut them up. Think it hasn't happened? Check out MLK's experiences with the Hoover FBI. Examine the Denver Poilce Departments secret files on any known activist group in Denver, which were gathered whether the group had ever been accused of anything, or not.
The point is, it isn't anybody's business what I read, whether I purchase it or borrow I from the library. The only up note of the whole thing, is that the Federal Government won't try to ban books, if only so they can track the people who read them. I guess being secure in your "papers" doesn't mean anything anymore. See this article for more.