Page "John Ashcroft" Paragraph 30

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Ashcroft was a key supporter of passage of the USA PATRIOT Act.

One of the provisions in that act was the controversial Section 215, which allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) to make an application for an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court requiring production of " any tangible thing " for an investigation.

Ashcroft referred to American Library Association opposition to Section 215 as " hysteria " in two separate speeches given in September 2003.

While Attorney General, Ashcroft consistently denied that the FBI or any other law enforcement agency had used the Patriot Act to obtain library circulation records or those of retail sales.