The Librarians Who Stood Up To Big Brother

“Peter Chase and Barbara Bailey, librarians in Plainville, Connecticut, received a National Security Letter to turn over computer records in their library on July 13, 2005. Unlike a suspected thousands of other people around the country, Chase, Bailey and two of their colleagues stood up to the Man and refused to comply, convinced that the feds had no right to intrude on anyone’s privacy without a court order (NSLs don’t require a judge’s approval). That’s when things turned ugly.”