January 25, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
media@aclu.org BOSTON - The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts
today applauded the Mayor of Newton and its library director for requiring law
enforcement authorities to comply with the basic requirements of the Fourth
Amendment before seizing public library computers and the information they
contain.
"The librarian acted responsibly and in accordance with
legal and constitutional requirements," said Carol Rose, Executive Director of
the ACLU of Massachusetts. "She was complying with the law, and we expect police
officers and the FBI to do the same."
The situation arose on
January 18 when police and FBI officials attempted to take custody of computers
at the Newton Free Library without a warrant. The officials claimed that a
threat to Brandeis University had been sent from one of the 21 computers at the
library, but the head librarian refused to honor their request without a
warrant, as required under the Fourth Amendment. The police returned to
the library later in the evening after they had obtained the required warrant.
"Clearly, after 9/11, there should have been a procedure in place
to ensure that law enforcement could promptly obtain a search warrant in an
emergency situation," said Rose. "In a situation like this, the answer is
not to simply shelve the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, but to create an
expedited process for obtaining search warrants. We can address security
concerns without surrendering basic constitutional rights."
