From Terry comes word of a statement issued by the American Library Association.
Last week, the American Library Association learned that the Department of Justice asked the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents to instruct depository libraries to destroy five publications the Department has deemed not “appropriate for external use.” The Department of Justice has called for these five public documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those with access to a law office or law library.
The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the government during an investigation. The documents to be removed and destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).
I have two immediate reactions. First, what are the constitutional implications of the government attempting to restrict access to the text of Federal statutes? Secondly, this seems to reflect obsolete (20th century) thinking. Presumably all of these texts are on line somewhere. If not, I’m sure that there are plenty of law students and librarians ready to crank up the scanners. So what’s the point? (Maybe that’s the answer – it’s simply intended as a distraction.)
UPDATE: The ALA reports that the Justice Department has rescinded its request. See also this Boston Globe story. From reading the latter, this whole affair looks like a simple case of bureaucratic myopia, but the fact that no-one questioned it at the time says a lot about the prevailing climate.
Thanks to Steve E. for the pointer.