July 24, 2004
From: Brenda Grantland, Board President, Forfeiture Endangers American Rights
Re: DOJ's order that depository libraries destroy certain DOJ forfeiture
publications
On July 20, Judith C. Russell, the Superintendent of Documents at the
Government Printing Office, sent a letter to all of the depository
libraries in the country, telling them to destroy five Department of
Justice publications about asset forfeiture, all published between 2000 and
2004. The publications to be destroyed are:
Documents to be removed and destroyed:
Title: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure
Class: J 1.2:C 49/17
Item no: 0717
Shipping list: 2004-0276-M
Shipping list date: May 7, 2004
Title: Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms
Class: J 1.2:F 76/8
Item no.: 0717
Shipping list: 2004-0038-P
Shipping list date: December 12, 2003
Title: Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes
Class: J 1.2:AS 7/2/2004
Item no.: 0717
Shipping list no.: 2004-0077-P
Shipping list date: February 5, 2004
Title: Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory
Class: J 1.89/3:M 74/2004
Item no.: 0717 A 11
Shipping list no. 2004-0120-P
Shipping list date: March 24, 2004
Title: Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA), PL no.
106-185, 114 Stat. 202 (2000)
Class: J 1.2:C 49/16
Item no: 0717
Shipping list no.: 2000-0367-P
Shipping list date: September 23, 2000
As you can see, these materials would be of use to forfeiture victims in
their fight to get their property back. Because they had been released
into the library system for some time, they were all public documents.
Many of the publications are comprised of statutes and court opinions which
are in the public domain.
Please help us fight to keep these publications in the public library
system. Write your Congressmen telling them how important it is that this
public information remain available. The American Library Association has
a web page that allows you to look up your Congressmen. See
http://capwiz.com/ala/dbq/officials/dir ... nd=congdir .
Another way to help is to call your nearby depository libraries and ask
them not to destroy these materials. "Depository libraries" -- that is,
libraries that stock U.S. government publications -- are listed on the U.S.
Government Printing Office website (
www.gpo.gov).
Every man has a property in his own person.
This nobody has any right to but himself.
The labor of his body and the work of his
hands are properly his.
--John Locke
