William Rehnquist Quotes
T]he Constitution does not guarantee the right to acquire information at a public library without any risk of embarrassment.
This decision did not extend the right of privacy of patrons of public libraries as to what material they access.
William Rehnquist, 1924-2005, Chief Justice, U. S. Supreme Court, United States v. American Library Association, 539 U.S. 194, 2003
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The next article itemizes a few exceptions such as national security, but by and large government documents are accessible.
At the time The Patriot Act was being hotly debated—especially the section which allowed Federal authorities to inspect the patron records of any library while a gag order prohibited the library staff from even telling the patron that their records were being inspected. O’Connor gave this explanation of the importance of such a provision.
For the classic formulation, see Brandeis, Olmstead v. U.S., 1927
The Senator was referring to the difficulty that governments have in censoring and controlling information on the Internet.
Towards the end of the 19th century, public libraries were available in most communities of Massachusetts setting an example for the rest of the nation. With the exception of the South, most states enabled local libraries in the following decades.
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States for 33 years, as an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and as Chief Justice from 1986 until his death in 2005. Considered a conservative, Rehnquist favored a conception of federalism that emphasized the Tenth Amendment's reservation of powers to the states. Under this view of federalism, the court, for the first time since the 1930s, struck down an act of Congress as exceeding its power under the Commerce Clause.
