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In 1953, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote, "If the lady from Toledo can be required to disclose what she read yesterday and what she will read tomorrow, fear will take the place of freedom in the libraries, bookstores, and homes of the land."
Yet that's just what a controversial provision from the Bush-era Patriot Act allows the federal government to do.
In 2005, then Representative Bernie Sanders, among others, sought to remedy this infringement on our reading privacy, but was unsuccessful. In 2006, some protections were added, it still failed to prevent the feds from searching "the records of anyone it considers 'relevant' to a terrorism investigation, including people who are not suspected of criminal conduct," according to the Campaign for Reader Privacy, a group consisting of American Booksellers Association, PEN American Center, the American Library Association, and the Association of American Publishers.
Last week, an amendment was added to the House spending bill (HR1) that would have defunded this practice of spying on your reading habits:
An amendment numbered 524 printed in the Congressional Record to prohibit use of funds for making application under FISA for an order requiring the production of library circulation records, library patron lists, book sales records, or book customer lists.
This amendment was spearheaded by Reps. John Conyers, Jerry Nadler, Walter Jones, and Ron Paul.
It was a close vote, but the amendment went down. Your government will continue to spy on what you are reading if it decides it wants to.
The Live Free or Die state's two congressmen, Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass, voted on the side of big government over personal privacy.
During the 2010 campaign, Guinta often made appeals to libertarian, Ron Paul Republicans about protecting personal freedom over government intervention.
For example, on a survey from the Campaign for Liberty, candidate Guinta answered yes to the question: "Will you oppose federal power grabs like roving wiretaps and warrantless searches, and oppose Patriot Act renewal that includes such items?"
Interestingly, Frank Guinta recently mused on the issue of trust in campaigning:
"...you have to be very careful what you say when you're campaigning, because people will hold you accountable."
