I reread my posting to try to figure out what sort of a spin you thought was being spun. PATRIOT does not apply here, as it only allows court-ordered release of library records (without probable cause) by the FBI, not by local officials. Had this been covered by the USA Patriot act, someone could argue that she had violated the law. Whatever you think of PATRIOT–and I would have considered such a violation to be a patriotic thing to do–the case would have been more ambiguous if she had violated existing law.

That she is disciplined for upholding the law is preposterous. I don’t think there is any spin involved there: there is nothing patriotic about pressuring librarians to break the law to make law enforcement’s job easier.