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According to Nat Hentoff, a key opponent of the USA Patriot Act, in order to bring to an end to the war against terrorism, President George W. Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft embarked on a "war on our civil liberties." The USA Patriot Act allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI to obtain a list of the titles and books checked out or bought from libraries and/or bookstores if the citizen or non-citizen is suspected of terrorist involvement. The bookstores and libraries along with businesses and universities covered by the provisions of the USA Patriot Act are included in the "broad definitions of terrorism". People are put under suspicion "based on what is read in books." Under the Patriot Act, the bookseller or librarian must comply with the first section of the law, which states that they are not to reveal to any other person or persons that the FBI has taken records from their bookstore or library. This section makes certain that the media and the general public cannot be informed of the investigation. This .
further prohibits the public from becoming aware of what books will get the reader or readers investigated by the FBI (1). Countless libraries have refused to cooperate with .
the provisions of the USA Patriot Act. In Berkeley, California, the director of the public library "purges records of all returned books each day and erases the list of Web sites visited on the library's 50 Internet terminals." In addition, officials "in Portland, Oregon, have declined to cooperate with federal agents who may serve warrants that can remain secret under the USA Patriot Act." The city council in a California town passed a law "barring city workers from enforcing the act" (Swartz 1). .
According to an editorial in the New Jersey Law Journal, "[n]ot everyone agrees that our civil rights may be restricted in the interest of security from anticipated terrorist attacks" (Defending the Bill of Rights 1).
