ALA and AALL Release Statements On Passage of USA FREEDOM Act in U.S. Senate
Here’s the full text of a statement we just received from the American Library Association.
Today, Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Washington Office, applauded the passage of the USA FREEDOM Act in the U.S. Senate:
“Passage of the USA FREEDOM Act is a milestone for two equally important reasons. It’s the first meaningful reform of our surveillance laws in almost 15 years. . . and it serves notice that libraries, tech companies, civil liberties advocates of every kind and hundreds of millions of ordinary Americans want the rule of law and their privacy restored. Tonight we celebrate. Tomorrow we go back to work to finish what USA FREEDOM started and can’t be stopped.
A Portion of a Statement From the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL):
AALL applauds the Senate passage of the USA FREEDOM Act (H.R. 2048) today, without amendment, by a vote of 67-32. The USA FREEDOMAct will end the bulk collection of Americans’ communications records under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) pen register authority, and National Security Letter (NSL) statutes. Under the legislation, all significant constructions or interpretations of law by the FISA court must be made public. The bill will also create a panel of amicus curie to provide guidance on matters of privacy and civil liberties, communications technology, and other technical or legal matters. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law, ushering in the most significant reduction in the government’s surveillance authorities since the 2001 passage of the USA PATRIOT Act.
Read the Complete AALL Statement
Note: We will update this post with more reaction as they become available.
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Libraries, Public Libraries
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.