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Libertarians? Lovers of Liberty?


blzrul

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The following statement was actually issued in July and is now starting to get more play. Arguably the people who would want these documents *could* be past, present or future felons, or their families, but still and all removing the law of the land from the reach of the people is somewhat disturbing. Isn't it?

 

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Statement from ALA President-Elect Michael Gorman:

 

Last week, the American Library Association learned that the Department of Justice asked the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents to instruct depository libraries to destroy five publications the Department has deemed not "appropriate for external use." The Department of Justice has called for these five these public documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those with access to a law office or law library.

 

The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the government during an investigation.

 

The documents to be removed and destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).

 

ALA has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the withdrawn materials in order to obtain an official response from the Department of Justice regarding this unusual action, and why the Department has requested that documents that have been available to the public for as long as four years be removed from depository library collections. ALA is committed to ensuring that public documents remain available to the public and will do its best to bring about a satisfactory resolution of this matter.

 

Librarians should note that, according to policy 72, written authorization from the Superintendent of Documents is required to remove any documents. To this date no such written authorization in hard copy has been issued.

 

Keith Michael Fiels

Executive Director

American Library Association

(800) 545-2433 ext.1392

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The following statement was actually issued in July and is now starting to get more play. Arguably the people who would want these documents *could* be past, present or future felons, or their families, but still and all removing the law of the land from the reach of the people is somewhat disturbing. Isn't it?

 

WHY are they being removed? Could be a valid reason.

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