april06c.indd


Ber nadette Murphy W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n e  

PATRIOT Act Reauthorization—What 
are the reforms? 
On March 7 the House of Representatives 
voted (280­138) to pass legislation reauthoriz­
ing the USA PATRIOT Act. Despite years of 
work done by ALA members, our allies in the 
civil liberties arena, and dedicated Members 
of Congress, the legislation does not include 
most of the meaningful reforms we hoped 
would restore the privacy rights of America’s 
library users. 

It does, however, contain some reforms. 
Following is a brief outline of some of the 
major provisions included in Section 215 of 
the reauthorized bill. (For more information, 
including information on Section 505, visit 
www.ala.org/espy.) 

Sunsets 
A sunset of December 31, 2009, was established 
for Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. 

Standards 
The standards under which the FBI can obtain 
library records in the course of an investiga­
tion are slightly more stringent under the new 
law. Under the original PATRIOT Act, the FBI 
had only to assert that records were “sought’ 
for an authorized investigation “to obtain for­
eign intelligence information not concerning 
a United States person or to protect against 
international terrorism or clandestine intel­
ligence activities.” 

Under the new legislation, the FBI can 
obtain library records of anyone when they 
present facts showing “reasonable grounds” 
to believe that the records are “relevant” to an 
authorized investigation as described above. 

Individualized suspicion 
The reauthorized statute brings in SAFE Act 
language regarding individualized suspicion, 
but it does not require the FBI to show such 

Bernadette Murphy is communications specialist at ALA’s 
Washington Offi  ce, e-mail: bmurphy@alawash.org 

individualized suspicion and so it leaves the 
door open to wide search order requests. 

Approval 
The law requires the director of the FBI, or 
(if delegated) the deputy director of the FBI 
or the FBI executive assistant director for 
national security, to personally approve any 
request for records from a library or book­
store or for firearms, tax return, educational 
or medical records. 

Disclosure 
The reauthorized PATRIOT Act reforms the 
original legislation by allowing disclosure of 
receipt of a Section 215 order to “any person 
to whom disclosure is necessary to comply 
with such order.” It also explicitly allows a 
recipient to consult an attorney and to obtain 
legal advice or assistance “with respect to 
the production of things in response to the 
order;” and also allows disclosure to “other 
persons as permitted” by the director of the 
FBI or the director’s designee. 

Challenges 
The reauthorization legislation allows a recip­
ient to challenge a Section 215 order. But that 
challenge can occur only in a special “petition 
review panel” of the FISA court—and chal­
lenges can only be filed in order to determine 
the “lawfulness” of the order. It is not clear 
why a FISA review panel would find that a 
FISA judge issued an unlawful order. 

The reauthorization legislation also allows 
a Section 215 order recipient to challenge the 
gag order attached to the subpoena. But the 
challenge is restricted and recipients may 
challenge only after one year. 

Reports 
The reauthorized PATRIOT Act requires that 
the Department of Justice submit unclassifi ed 
reports on the use of Section 215 orders annu­
ally in April to the House and Senate Judiciary 
and Intelligence Committees. . 

April 2006  257 C&RL News 

mailto:bmurphy@alawash.org
www.ala.org/espy