“THE USA PATRIOT ACT gives the government sweeping authority to monitor what books we read and buy.” When that flat falsehood is being peddled by a national legislator, it’s no wonder bookstores and libraries are circulating petitions to amend this fearful law, and ordinary American readers are signing them, in the earnest hope of rescuing our basic freedoms.

But Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is not alone in publicizing (on his website) this scurrilous rendition of the Patriot Act. The American Civil Liberties Union also propagates a caricature of the law as “setting the FBI loose on the American public.” Here’s a snippet from the ACLU’s analysis of the relevant part of the statute, Section 215: