Published by the American Library Association
IFRT Report
Intellectual Freedom Round Table No. 50-51, Winter 2003


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Current Citations on Civil Liberties and Privacy Rights After September 11, 2001


In the year following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 voices have often seemed silenced that speak out about the human rights, civil liberties, and intellectual freedom implications of the United States governmental and military responses to terrorism.

The following is a selective list of activities and studies from legal, professional, and advocacy organizations outside of librarianship that provide background information and documentation on the impact the "War on Terrorism" has had on fundamental rights and liberties. Issues related to privacy rights have been highlighted.

American Association of University Professors. Special Committee on Academic Freedom and National Security in Time of Crisis. Formed Oct. 2002.

American Bar Association. Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities.

  • Human Rights Magazine. "September 11th: Justice in a New Era?" vol. 29, no. 1 (Winter 2002). "Our authors write about the civil rights, civil liberties, and due process implications that have arisen in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks." -- Introduction. Available on the web in its entirety at: http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/winter02.html.
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.

  • ABFFE, ACLU, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Freedom to Read Foundation have sued the U.S. Department of Justice in an effort to find out how many subpoenas for bookstore and library records have been issued under the U.S.A. Patriot Act. See: http://www.abffe.com/. Text of the lawsuit, filed Oct. 24, 2002 can be found here: http://www.aclu.org/Files/OpenFile.cfm?id=11039.
American Civil Liberties Union.

  • "Keep American Safe and Free". The ACLU has gathered a number of critical reports together at these pages, including Civil Liberties After 9-11 (released Sept. 20, 2002) and Insatiable Appetite: The Government's Demand for New and Unnecessary Powers after Sept. 11th (released May 29, 2002): http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFreeMain.cfm. For information on the ACLU's privacy rights programs, including links to legal filings and legislative testimony, visit: http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/PrivacyMain.cfm.
Amnesty International USA.

Cato Institute.

Center for Constitutional Rights.

Center for Democracy and Technology.

Human Rights Watch.

Lawyer's Committee on Human Rights.

  • A Year of Loss: Reexamining Civil Liberties Since September 11. Released Sept. 1, 2002. Chapter 2 "examines the erosion of Fourth Amendment privacy rights in the wake of September 11:" http://www.lchr.org/us_law/loss/loss_main.htm. LCHR's website includes a frequently updated "Chronology of the Government's Restrictions on Civil Liberties."
Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press.

IFRT members interested in following these issues more closely are strongly encouraged to subscribe to the IFACTION news listserv, moderated by IFRT Staff liaison Don Wood. Most if not all of the items listed here were announced on IFACTION, the news-only no-discussion e-list of the Intellectual Freedom Action Network (IFAN) http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/ifan_inf.html and the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) http://www.ala.org/oif.html.

To subscribe, send a message to listproc@ala.org. Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the message, type:

subscribe ifaction yourfirstname yourlastname


Jim Kuhn, IFRT liaison with SRRT
Chair, ALA IFC Subcommittee on Privacy
Links last checked on Nov. 26, 2002.


OTHER ISSUES | | CONTENTS | FIRST ARTICLE | PREVIOUS ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE | LAST ARTICLE


Published by the American Library Association
IFRT Report
Intellectual Freedom Round Table No. 50-51, Winter 2003