Gag

I'd have thought Connecticut libraries' appeal -- with the ACLU and the American Library Association -- against the provision of the Patriot Act which allows the feds to seize library records and impose a gag order on the libraries -- would have succeeded in the Supreme Court.

But it didn't.  And the justice who denied the appeal was none other than Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  And she was probably right, though it's frustrating to realize that when our government creates unreasonable restrictions on freedoms, it's all of us who must wait and wait and wait for higher courts to slowly come to a decision on the issue at hand.

Ginsburg said that the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should be given time to consider whether the Patriot Act, and its requirement of secrecy in records demands, is unconstitutional as applied to the libraries. ''A decision of that moment warrants cautious review,'' she said.

I think it's possible to be cautious while moving smartly forward to resolve the issue, don't you?