Following a recent change in terms of the Patriot Act, federal authorities said they will end their efforts to prevent a library organization from identifying itself as a part of an antiterrorism investigation. Last year, the FBI sent a so-called national security letter to the Library Connection, an organization of 26 libraries in Connecticut, seeking patron records and e-mail messages. As it was originally enacted, the Patriot Act authorized the letters and forbade recipients from disclosing that they had been sent the letter. The group protested, saying the gag order violated their First Amendment rights, and last September a federal judge agreed. Ironically, it was during those proceedings that the government inadvertently identified the group in question as the Library Connection when attorneys for the government filed court documents with the group’s name not redacted.
Congress has since revised the Patriot Act, which now grants the government discretion to allow some recipients of national security letters to identify themselves. Kevin O’Connor, the United States attorney in Connecticut, said that in light of the changed legislation, the government would end its appeal of the decision to allow the Library Connection to come forward. New York Times, 13 April 2006 (registration req’d)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/13/nyregion/13library.html