Librarians Break Silence in Records Case

From today’s New York Times (links & excerpt):

Four Librarians Finally Break Silence in Records Case

Four Connecticut librarians who had been barred from
revealing that they had received a request for patrons’ records from
the federal government spoke out yesterday, expressing frustration
about the sweeping powers given to law enforcement authorities by the
USA Patriot Act.

The librarians took turns at the
microphone at their lawyers’ office and publicly identified themselves
as the collective John Doe who had sued the United States attorney
general after their organization received a confidential demand for
patron records in a secret counterterrorism case. They had been
ordered, under the threat of prosecution, not to talk about the request
with anyone. The librarians, who all have leadership roles at a small
consortium called Library Connection in Windsor, Conn., said they
opposed allowing the government unchecked power to demand library
records and were particularly incensed at having been subject to the
open-ended nondisclosure order.