A provision of the USA Patriot Act is being challenged through a lawsuit filed by Detroit's branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and some Arab-American advocacy groups.
The provision, section 215 of the anti-terrorism legislation, calls for librarians to hand over names and records of suspected terrorists to FBI agents. Librarians who give out records are legally bound to secrecy and unable to let those being investigated know the information is being looked at by the federal government.
The ACLU's lawsuit stems from the arrest of Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, a Muslim community leader in Portland, Ore. The ACLU names Attorney General John Aschcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller as defendants in the lawsuit.
The provision allows the government greater freedoms than in the past to retrieve records, books and papers in the search for terrorists.
The lawsuit also contends the Patriot Act unfairly targets people of Arab and Muslim descent.
Some of the groups participating in the lawsuit are the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor, the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., and the Islamic Center of Portland, where Kariye was a prayer leader.
Some within MSU's community also think the Patriot Act might interfere with civil liberties.
"The act was passed rather hastily as a knee jerk reaction to Sept. 11 (terrorist attacks)," said Matt Thome, spokesman for MSU College Republicans. "Opposition of the Patriot Act goes across party lines."
But the Department of Justice is defending the act as a necessary deterrent to terrorism.
"The Patriot Act was a long overdue measure to close gaping holes in the government's ability, responsibility and duty to collect vital intelligence information on criminal terrorists," officials from the Justice Department said in a statement.
But some student leaders say the act is a form of legal discrimination.
"The United States doesn't need the Patriot Act," said Fareeha Shuttari, president of MSU's Muslim Student Association. "The Patriot Act is targeting specific individuals of Arab descent."
Officials in support of the Patriot Act said the public might be misinterpreting the act.
"Some critics are creating a false choice between national security and civil liberties," Jeffrey Collins, Detroit-based U.S. attorney, said in a statement. "We want to explain to the public how we are applying the Patriot Act to protect both of these important interests."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
