The House of Representatives Wednesday voted to ban the use of the Patriot Act for searches of library and book store records. Here’s the roll call of the vote.

Voting to Restrict the Patriot Act:

  • Marilyn Musgrave
  • Diana DeGette
  • Mark Udall
  • John Salazar

Voting Against the Restriction:

  • Bob Beauprez
  • Joel Hefley
  • Tom Tancredo

The section at issue is Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Howard Rothman at New West writes:

The vote came on an amendment to the House Commerce, Justice, State (CJS) Appropriations Bill to cut off funds for bookstore and library searches under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act that was introduced by Rep. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont. The amendment was co-sponsored by two Republicans (Rep. Butch Otter of Idaho and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas) and two Democrats (Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York and Rep. Tom Udall of New Mexico).

“Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act is part of a dangerous erosion of our constitutional rights that, little by little, is making us a less free nation,” said Sanders. “American citizens across the political spectrum have made it very clear that they do not want the government monitoring their reading habits when they walk into a library or bookstore. We can protect our nation from terrorism without letting Uncle Sam read over our collective shoulders.”

So what made Rep. Musgrave cross sides to vote with the Dems? Privacy, probably. Republicans like to think of themselves as the party that cares about privacy values.