alternative news & media sources for the war on drugs, politics and current events in the news today.

For the second time since the USA Patriot Act broadened the FBI's power to demand private records in secret, a federal judge ruled yesterday that it is unconstitutional for the government to impose an automatic and permanent ban on public disclosure of any case in which it uses that power.

U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall found that the statutory gag order, invoked every time the FBI uses a "national security letter" to demand information in terrorism or espionage cases, violated the First Amendment rights of a Connecticut library consortium that is refusing to cooperate with the FBI. The consortium, known in court papers thus far as "John Doe," wants to identify itself and make public its opposition to use of such letters against library patrons.

Hall freed the consortium and its officers to identify only themselves, not the target or targets of the FBI investigation. She stayed her order until Sept. 20 to enable the Bush administration to appeal. The appellate court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, is already considering a New York district judge's decision last year to strike down the entire statutory basis for national security letters on First and Fourth Amendment grounds.

Hall's decision came just 30 days after the librarians, represented and joined as plaintiffs by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed their case. She said she intended to permit the librarians to join concretely in a largely speculative