To the editor:

More than 100 cities, including Philadelphia and Denver, have passed resolutions calling for the repeal of the U.S. Patriot Act and directing local police to refuse assistance to federal authorities serving search warrants arising from the act. The Patriot Act allows searches that are not supported by a showing of probable cause, and these searches can have a broad sweep. They are not necessarily confined to people thought to be associated with terrorist groups; any of us can be subject to a search under the Patriot Act.

One of the more troubling sections of the act allows the search of library and bookstore records without the knowledge of the citizens being investigated. If librarians or bookstore proprietors notify their clients, they can be prosecuted. The effective result of these searches will be a personally imposed censorship of what we read.

Both as a private citizen and as a member of the Kansas Bill of Rights Defense Committee, I ask for your support in requesting the Lawrence City Commission to pass a resolution calling for the repeal of the U.S. Patriot Act.

Dinah Lovitch,

Lawrence