In two weeks, the Reader Privacy petitions will be presented to U.S.
Representative Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and other members of Congress who are
fighting to amend section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. In a major press event,
author Salman Rushdie (President of PEN), former U.S. Congresswoman Patricia
Schroeder (President of the Association of American Publishers), Mitchell Kaplan
(President of the American Booksellers Association), and Carla Hayden (past
President of the American Library Association) will convey the concerns of
writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and readers across the country
about government intrusion into bookstore and library records and request a full
Congressional review of how section 215 is affecting the freedom to read.
Thanks to you and thousands like you, the Campaign for Reader Privacy has
collected more that 170,000 signatures since it was launched in February. Your
support, and the calls and messages you have delivered to Congress have already
made a difference: On July 8, 210 members of the House of Representatives voted
for the Freedom to Read Amendment, a bill that would have banned the Justice
Department from using the secret warrants available under section 215 to search
bookstore and library records. The Amendment would have passed if House leaders
had not held the vote open until they could persuade a handful of members to
switch their votes. Although we lost the battle, the vote clearly showed that
support for amending section 215 is growing.
To build on this momentum, and to make the biggest impact possible when we meet
with Congress on September 29, we are hoping to collect 100,000 more signatures
for the Reader Privacy petition in the next two weeks. We need your help!
To help us reach this goal, we are asking all Reader Privacy supporters to
e-mail 10 friends THIS WEEK and ask them to visit www.readerprivacy.com to sign
their names to our on-line petition. Please take the time to do this, and urge
these 10 friends to do the same!
We will, of course, be in touch to report on the September 29 event as soon as
it happens.
With many thanks for your support,
The Campaign for Reader Privacy
