Destroy all Documents
Via Metafilter an odd story about the Department of Justice and Federal Depositary Libraries. It seems that the DOJ let the government printing office get a hold of a series of pamphlets detailing legal strategies and rulings on asset forfeiture which they decided were really for internal use only
Boston.com / News / Nation / Libraries ordered to destroy US pamphlets. The GPO distributed them as a routine part of their general program.
McKeldin is a Federal depositary Library. I turned to the Government Documents cataloging clerk, Cheryl who sits behind me, and show her the Boston globe article. "I think we got that e-mail", she says, "They had to pull some stuff a couple of weeks ago." I check one of the titles the Globe article mentions in PAC (I love all this library talk...Tim Conway's running line in McHales' Navy: "Gee I love all this Navy talk"). It still seems to be on the shelf:
United States. Dept. of Justice. Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. Civil and criminal forfeiture procedure [microform] : compilation of recent federal cases / [prepared by Stefan D. Cassella]. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Justice, Criminal Division, Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, [2004]
UMCP McKeldin Library : Government Documents Microfiche - J 1.2:C 49/17
Non-Circulating / On shelf.
Boston Globe article also adds that the American Library Association is dubious of this recall and is considering fighting it.
The Metafilter thread goes off on a partial tangent. Mostly trying to nail down why the DOJ would be so intent on getting this pamphlets back. I'd like to say I had never heard of these forfeiture stuatues before or after their expansion under the Patriot act, but I recall being vaguely aware of them. I can only assume I initially responded with the general moral shrug that "it will only effect bad guys". That is always a weak, bad faith reaction. Allowing property to be arrested is only an invitation to mass corruption at some point, if not already. This can't be responsible policy, but something that can only survive in shadows.
I'll have to take this up with my sister to see what lawyers make of all this. On preview; though, it's a bad thing.
10:58:00 PM  ;;
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