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"First Amendment audits" push privacy limits
In October 2019, a phone rang at Silas Bronson Library in Waterbury, Connecticut. When Director Raechel Guest answered, the "very hostile" voice on the other end made a threat she'd never heard before: The caller told her he planned to visit the library to perform a "First Amendment audit."
The call represented a trend unfolding in public facilities across the country: individuals who arm themselves with video cameras, proclaim themselves First Amendment auditors, and enter police precincts, post offices, libraries, and other spaces under the auspices of the First Amendment right to free speech in order to record staff violations.
The Connecticut caller was particularly aggressive, according to Guest. He threatened to bring bodybuilders and an attorney with him to the library and said that if police were called, the bodybuilders would wrestle officers to the ground and perform a citizens' arrest, Guest recalls.
When these self-appointed auditors arrive, library staffers must strike a delicate balance between patrons' rights to film and the privacy of library users. Defusing the situation
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), addressed the phenomenon in a post on ALA's Intellectual Freedom blog (bit.ly/lstAmAudit). Libraries are legally considered limited or nonpublic forums when it comes to First Amendment rights, she says. In these spaces, agencies in charge are only obligated to allow activities that comply with the nature of the space-meaning that rights to film and photograph can be restricted if they interfere with library functions or operations.
"We're not necessarily concerned...